The Suicide Note
by gretty23
Summary: Naruto decides to end his life and he writes out why in a letter to Kiba. Will kiba be too late to save him? Why does Naruto think that what he wrote in the letter will change their friendship and if it does will it change for better or will it be worse?
1. Prologue

**A/N:** This is a story that's been on my computer for a while. I only wrote two chapters of it and i'll eithe upload it later today or tomorrow. So tell me what you think and if you think I should contiue. I know it's only about 2,000 words but the chapters will get longer.

**The Suicide Note**

_Hi there. It's your old pal Naruto. I, uh, I really don't know how to write one of these. Uh, to tell you the truth I really haven't written one of these before, well unless you count the love letters I wrote to Sakura a long time ago, but I never actually sent them to her. I was never able to build up enough courage to give them to her. It was kind of weird you know, writing about my undying love for her in a letter. It really wasn't my style, not to mention the fact that I would freak out if she ever found out about them. I used to wonder about what she would do if she actually read them, but I eventually moved on from her. Thinking about that today I realize how stupid it was. _

_P.S: Please don't tell Sakura that I wrote her love letters. I might have gotten over her, but I still don't want her to know._

_Sorry about that, I got a little carried away there. Anyway back on a serious note. You've probably been wondering why I've decided to write to you instead of just going over to your place and telling you in person. Well you'll learn why at the end of this letter, but first I have a few things that I want to get off my chest._

_Okay before I tell you this first thing I just want to say that I don't want this to come between our friendship, but I'd understand if you didn't want to talk to me anymore; or if you were just plain disgusted by it. Many people in the village might think the same thing. _

_Okay well you know where I said that I gotten over Sakura right? Well the reason for that is that I've found somebody new. Nothing wrong with that right? But the thing is I noticed that I was more attracted to, uh, more guys than I was to girls, a certain guy to be pacific. Are you grossed put yet? If you're not you will be after you find who it was._

_It was Sasuke. Yep, good old Sasuke Uchiha. I know, I know I was just as shocked as you are, maybe even more._

_I had a hard time believing it. I didn't want to convince myself that I could actually like that bastard. I tried everything from peeking in the ladies bath at the hot springs, looking at those dirty magazines at the store; I even tried using one of my shadow clones to use the Sexy Jutsu, anything to try and convince myself that I wasn't gay, but if I was I still didn't want to admit that I like Sasuke. But no matter what I did no matter how hard I tried I kept thinking about Sasuke in that way. _

_So that was the first thing I wanted to tell you. I hope you're not as grossed out as I was at first or anything like that. You're actually the first person in the village I've ever come out too. I tried to keep it a secret 'cause I was afraid of how everyone would react. Not even Sakura or Lady Tsunade knows._

_The second thing I want to talk about is the real reason why Sasuke left. Everyone claims that it's because he wanted more power and would do whatever it took to get it, even if that meant going to that freak, Orochimaru. Well that is part of the reason, but what they don't know is that I'm the real reason for why he left the village. _

_As I already said, I had a crush on him and was trying to convince myself that I didn't like him. Well after a while I just gave up on that and just admitted that I liked him. Even though I finally accepted myself and the fact that I had a crush on Sasuke I wasn't going to tell him. I started to notice that I started blushing and stuttering whenever I was around him. Even when he turned to look at me, or should I say glare, I just couldn't help but turn to mush._

_One day I finally had enough of secretly admiring him and told him that I loved him. So I guess you're actually the second person I told that I was gay. Anyway, that didn't go too well for me. He punched me hard in the stomach, called me a fag, and walked off. The next day I found out that he had left the village the night that I had told him. _

_When we went on the mission to go get him back it was just me and him at the Valley of the End. I begged him not to go, that everybody'll miss him, that he's throwing his life away, that the village needs him. But all he said was that he couldn't live in a village full of fags and then he tried to kill me. As you know I was in the hospital after our fight. I went into a great depression after that, but I put on a fake smile to show people that I was alright with everything that happened. Even up to this day I still feel a little depressed about Sasuke leaving._

_Now on to the third thing. T__he villagers treat me like crap! No matter how much I trained how many times I've saved the village they still treat me like a monster. Everyday it's the same thing, they tell me that they want me dead, beat me up and say it's 'to teach me a lesson' or 'It'll be worse next time if I ever got out of hand' when I've done nothing wrong. I can't even go to the market and buy anything, because they either kick me out, they raise the prices so high that I can't afford it, or they give __me __things that already went bad. I don't even know why I try anymore. I use to think that if I worked hard and became Hokage the villagers would __finally learn to __accept me, but I doubt they would even let that happen. _

_I don't even know who to trust anymore. Some people act like they're my friend when in reality they actually want to get close to me so they could try and kill me. But not you. I know that I can trust you that's why i'm writing you this letter._

_I remember this one time when a group of guys followed me to an empty street and jumped me. They pulled me into an alley and beat me up so badly that even the nine-tails couldn't heal me. _

_I had to limp to grandma Tsunade who patched up what h nine-tails couldn't. I had to beg her not to make such a big deal about it and to keep it a secreted._

_The happy, not a care in the world Naruto you all know and probably love is just a poser. To tell you the truth I hate every last one of them. It would be the highlight of my day to see __everyone in the village__ suffering the way I've been for all these years. They blame me for something I had nothing to do with at all, It's not my fault that I'm the Kyubi's vessel. I didn't even ask for this! No it's not my fault, it's the stupid fourth Hokage's fault for putting that damn fox inside me. But yet no one seems to know that. Every time they look at me they see a monster, a demon!_

_Two more confessions and we're done here. Okay I know this might sound crazy to you or like some sort of joke, but I'm serious. I wouldn't expect you to feel the same way towards me, but I really just have to let you know that…I like you; I mean LIKE you like you. I have for a long time now, if I remember correctly I liked you for over a year now. Yep that's right I have a crush on the big shot, loud mouth, heir of the Inuzuka clan, Kiba Inuzuka himself. This is __one of the__ reason__s__ why I didn't come and talk to you in person. I was afraid to see how you'd react to it. I wouldn't be surprised if you left the village too like Sasuke, I mean no one can love a demon right? Or at least that's what the villagers say, and nonetheless a gay one at that._

_Lastly, this is my last goodbye. By that I mean I'm going to end everything today. All my pain and misery, all my sadness, it all ends today. I can't live in a place where no one cares about me. Where I work my ass off to help them and they still throw me away like trash.__ But I don't blame them. Everytime I look in a mirror I see the same thing they do; a hideously disgusting monster._

_T__hey all want me dead, every last one of them. So it all ends today. I'll give the villagers what they want. By the time you've gotten this letter it would have already been too late, so please don't try and save me. I'm really sorry for all the trouble I've caused you, but you won't have to worry about that anymore. I hope that you'll remember me as one of your friends, and not the monster people say I am. I hope you find that special someone that will make you feel happy and complete 'cause apparently I won't be able to find that special someone of my own._

_Sincerely, Naruto Uzumaki _


	2. Take A Dive

**A/N: **So this is the second chapter a little latter than I had promised but here it is. Hope you like it.

Naruto let out a sigh as he placed the pen down on the kitchen table. He just finished spilling his heart out in the letter for Kiba. He wrote out things that he hasn't even to Sakura or even Tsunade. Years' worth of secrets and built up emotions all written out in a single letter.

He got out of his chair and stood up in front of the table. He bit down on his thumb until it started to bleed. Naruto then made the hand signs for the Summoning Jutsu and proceeded to slam his hand down on the table. An explosion of smoke appeared, and out of the smoke came a blue and red messenger frog. The frog was no bigger than Naruto's hand, and carried a pouch that was strapped to his back.

"Where too kid?" The frog asked.

Naruto rolled up the letter to Kiba and placed it in the pouch on the messenger frog's back. "Take this to the Inuzuka Compound, and hand it directly to Kiba Inuzuka." Naruto said, looking down at the frog.

"Will do." The messenger saluted to the blond before he turned and jumped out of Naruto's window.

Naruto sighed. He knew that if he really was going to do it he had to do it now before it was too late. He grabbed his coat off the back of his chair and proceeded out of his apartment.

He closed his front door, not even bothering to lock it. He threw on his jacket zipping up and getting ready to jump across the rooftops when he heard a familiar voice coming from behind him.

"Boss!" He heard. Naruto turned around to see Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi, or as they like to call themselves, 'The Konohamaru Ninja Squad', were all making their way up the stairs and over towards him.

"Hey boss!" Konohamaru, the leader of the three, said with a huge grin.

"Hey guys." Naruto said with a forced fake smile.

"Do you want to play ninja with us today?" Moegi asked hopefully.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Uh, I'm sorry guys. Maybe we could latter." Naruto offered a latter that he knew would never come. There was no way that he was going to fail. If he had to pick the person that he'd miss the most, he would have to say that it would be Konohamaru and the gang.

"Yeah right, it's always been 'latter' with you lately, but latter never comes." Konohamaru wined. "Why don't you want to play with us anymore?"

"Sorry, it's just that I'm just really busy right now."

Konohamaru's expression changed from one of annoyance to one of concern. He could feel Naruto's negative energy radiating off of him. Instead of the warm happy feeling he always felt whenever he was around the blond, he felt something depressing and it almost made him want to cry for him, but he didn't know why.

"Boss is everything alright?" Konohamaru asked.

Naruto placed a hand on Konohamaru's head and gave him a small smile. "Don't worry, I promise that after today that everything will be just fine."

"So does that mean you'll play with us tomorrow?" Udon asked. Naruto did nothing but smile before taking off on the roofs.

Moegi sighed. "Well let's go." She said and with that they started back down the stairs of the apartment complex.

"I can't believe he blew us off again." Moegi complained as they slowly progressed down the stairs.

"Yeah, but at least he promised that he'd play with us tomorrow." Udon said.

"I don't believe him one bit. He'll probably say that he's busy again." Moegi put air quotes when she said the word 'busy.'

They reached the bottom of the complex and the whole way down Konohamaru hadn't said a word on their encounter with the blond shinobi.

"Konohamaru what's wrong, why are you so quiet?" Udon asked a silent Konohamaru.

"Did you guys feel that? I mean when we were talking to Naruto." Konohamaru said as they started walking down the streets of Konoha.

"No, what do you mean?" Moegi asked.

"It was like that wasn't even him it was like it was an impostor."

"You mean like someone used the Transformation Jutsu to turn into him?" Udon asked.

"No, like you know how the boss is always happy?" They both nodded and Konohamaru continued. "Well this time Naruto felt like the complete opposite. Instead of the warm bright feeling I usually get when I'm around him, I felt something darker like…like…I don't know." Konohamaru explained as best as he could.

"Well now that you mention it, I did feel something different about him." Moegi said.

"Yeah me too." Udon agreed. "You think we should tell the Hokage?"

"No, remember he said that everything will be better tomorrow so there's no need to worry." Moegi said.

"Yeah I hope you're right." Konohamaru mumbled as he looked up at the sky.

The messenger frog that Naruto sent had made it to the Inuzuka Compound. He jumped over the wooden gate and once he landed he was instantly cornered by an over-sized dog with an eye patch over his right eye and a missing left ear. Kuromaru, Tsume's dog partner, was growling, staring down at the red and blue frog. The messenger backed up against the wooden gate terrified.

_What are you doing here? _Kuromaru asked menacingly.

"Wow, wow take it easy." The messenger frog said. "I'm just here to deliver a message to Kiba Inuzuka."

Kuromaru gave him a hard look debating on whether or not to let him past. "Kuromaru get over here!" An angry Tsume shouted from inside the house.

_He's over there. _Kuromaru said jerking his head to the left in the direction of a tree that was all the way on the other side of the Inuzuka Compound. He then turned and made his way to the female head of the Inuzuka Clan, not wanting to get on her bad side.

"Uh, thanks." The frog darted past the dog and towards the tree.

Kiba was sitting with his back leaning against the tree and his eyes closed shut. Akamaru lay besides him, his head on his paws and his eyes closed as well.

Akamaru's nose twitched when the smell of a swamp bombarded his nostrils. His head shot up and he looked to his right to see a frog making its way towards them. He let out a loud bark waking Kiba up.

"Hm? What is it boy?" Kiba asked turning his head to see what had caught the dog's attention. "What is that?" He asked himself as he spotted the red and blue messenger frog coming towards him. As it got closer he noticed it had a pouch strapped to its back. "A frog?"

The messenger frog came to a stop in front of the brunet. "Hey are you Kiba Inuzuka?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah, what's up?"

"You got a message."

"A message from who?"

"I didn't quite get his name."

Kiba reached into the pouch on the frogs back and pulled out the rolled up letter. "Thanks" he said.

"No problem." The frog disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Kiba unrolled the letter and read the first sentence.

_It smells like it's from Naruto. _Akamaru stated.

"It is. I wonder what he has to say in a letter that he couldn't say to me in person. He probably wants to finally admit that I'm better than him." Kiba said with a chuckle.

He started reading the letter with a smug grin on his face. His grin slowly started to disappear as he continued to read the letter. It got to the point where his eyes and mouth were wide open. When he finished reading the letter he just stared at it frozen, holding his breath.

Akamaru took notice of his master's shocked expression. _Kiba are you okay? What did the note say? _Akamaru whined.

"Naruto." Kiba said under his breath. His head shot towards Akamaru. "Akamaru we have to go!" Kiba said frantically standing up. He folded the letter and stuffed it in his pocket.

_Uh, right! _Akamaru stood up._ But where are we going?_

Kiba swung his leg around Akamaru and sat on his back. "To Naruto's place and hurry!" Kiba gripped onto Akamaru's fur. Akamaru took off full speed off the Inuzuka Compound, and to Naruto's apartment.

_Please don't make me be too late. _Kiba thought to himself.

It wasn't long until they landed on the roof of Naruto's apartment. Kiba got off of Akamaru and they jumped down landing in front of his door. "Naruto!" Kiba shouted as he burst through Naruto's door. The smell of the blond, dirty laundry, and ramen filled the room. "Naruto, Naruto are you in here?" Kiba shouted as he walked further into the flat. He checked the kitchen, his bedroom, and bathroom, but Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

"Dammit." Kiba cursed under his breath. "He's here." Kiba said walking out of the apartment.

_Kiba what's going on? _ Akamaru asked still in the dark about what was going on. Just then Kiba herd Konohamaru's voice. He moved to look over the balcony to see him and his two friends walking down the street. "Come on." They jumped down landing behind them. If anybody knew where Naruto was Kiba figured it would be them since they were practically always together.

"Hey!" He shouted running in front of them. "Have you guys seen Naruto?"

"Yeah, but he said he was busy and went somewhere. " Konohamaru said.

"Which way did he go?"

"I think he went that way." Moegi said pointing ahead.

"Why is something wrong?" Konohamaru asked.

To avoid getting them worried Kiba opted on saying, "No, I just need to talk to him that's all, Thanks." Kiba and Akamaru quickly made their way in the direction Moegi had pointed to. Kiba sniffed the air and managed to pick up the faint scent of Naruto. "I picked up his scent." Kiba said. They took off jumping from roof top to roof top desperately trying to reach Naruto in time before it was too late.

After jumping over a number of houses Naruto made a left towards the forest. His feet made contact with the forest floor, but his pace didn't falter even for a second. He broke out in a fast run passing the trees and the rest of his surroundings in a blur.

He knew that he had to get this over with fast. Sooner or later Kiba would come looking for him.

_Or maybe he'll tell Grandma Tsunade and she'll send out ANBU to look for me. No matter I accounted for that._

It was true. Naruto had accounted for every possible interruption. It was a foolproof plan. After six months of planning, he was finally putting his plan into action.

Naruto remembers always coming to this forest as a kid. Not only to train, but also to get away from all his problems, away from the villagers that despised him. He practically knew this forest like the back of his hand. This would have to be another thing that Naruto would miss. This forest is where he came to cry the first time the villagers physically attacked him when he was younger.

He pushed that memory aside finding it too distracting. If he wanted this to work he had to keep his mind clear and focused.

He stopped in the middle of the forest, still about half a mile away from his destination. He made the ram hand sign and built up his chakra. He then focused that built up chakra around the outer layer of his body. He did that until his entire body was cocooned by his own chakra successfully masking his scent. He made sure that just in case if Kiba was coming after him that his nose wouldn't be a problem.

He started running again making sure that he kept his scent suppressed by his chakra.

As they rushed to find Naruto Akamaru tried to get Kiba to tell him what Naruto had written in the letter. _Kiba why are we in such a rush to find Naruto? What did he write in the letter? _Kiba remained quiet._ Kiba tell me what the hell is going on!_

The Inuzuka sighed. "Naruto's going to commit suicide." He answered.

_What?_

"In the letter he wrote about how he couldn't take being treated like crap anymore." Kiba stopped moving and Akamaru stopped beside him. Kiba sniffed the air trying to figure out which way to go. "This way." He said running into the forest.

The whole time Kiba just focused on what Naruto had written in the letter. He had no idea that Naruto had those feelings for him, but now that he did the big question was did he share the same feelings for him?

Further down Kiba found that Naruto's scent stopped right in the middle of the forest. He frantically sniffed around trying to find his scent again. Akamaru noticing the same thing also started looking for the blond's scent once more.

"Dammit!" Kiba cursed finding it impossible to find his scent. "He must have masked his scent." Kiba pulled on his spiky brown hair desperately thinking of which direction to go. Akamaru whimpered at Kiba's distraught state. "Come on." He said running to the right.

Finally Naruto could see his destination. Just a few feet away stood a powerful waterfall. It wasn't an ordinary waterfall, it was said to be Konoha's coldest, too cold to even swim in.

He came to a stop and walked up to the side of it. Naruto bravely looked over the edge, not feeling a single pang of fear. He knew that any normal person would be terrified if they were to fall over, but the reason for Naruto's lack of fear would be because he was going to jump. It was as simple as that.

He figured that if the fall didn't kill him that the freezing cold water and hundreds of rocks would do the trick.

**Kit are you sure you want to do this? **Kyuubi asked from inside Naruto's subconscious.

"I'm as sure as I'll ever be." Naruto said still looking over the edge. The roar of the waterfall was so loud it was giving Naruto a headache. The waterfall was about 50 yards wide and deep and looked like it never ended.

**You know that when you die the seal will be weakened and I'll be free and I won't think twice about destroying this village.**

"I could care less what you do with this God forsaken Village." Naruto said coldly. He took off his jacket and dropped it on the ground beside his feet, leaving him in his T-shirt.

Naruto took one last look over the edge before taking a few steps back. Truthfully he was starting to have second thoughts about this, but he came this far to doing it and it was too late to turn back now. If he did turn back who would he go back to? Kiba probably wouldn't talk to him anymore because of his letter, the village still hated him, and he had no parents. So he closed his eyes took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves and charged forward leaping off of the cliff.

The dive was so long. Naruto could feel the wind blasting in his face as he fell and his heart was pounding in his chest as he waited to hit the water.

Just as he thought this could go on forever _'SPLASH!' _He hit the water doing a belly flop into the iced cold water.

The impact was so brutal that Naruto curled up and let out a scream underwater. His scream was made into a gargling sound by the water and he ended up swallowing almost half a gallon of water.

His instincts kicked in and he started swimming up until his head pierced the top of the water. He started furiously coughing taking in as much air as he could. His body still hurt terribly from the fall and he couldn't keep himself above the water any longer.

He fell back under the water. This time he ignored his instinct to swim. The whole point of this was so that he could die. So he forced himself to stay underwater and be carried by the stream. The water was so cold that Naruto could feel his limbs; his entire body already start to go numb. His body temperature was rapidly decreasing and it wouldn't be long until he went into hypothermic shock.

Naruto's attention moved from his slowly freezing limbs and he noticed his throat became tight. He couldn't hold his breath for much longer. His hand came around his throat as he thrashed around underwater. He did that until he couldn't hold it any longer. Naruto let out the breath he was holding, sending bubbles floating to the top. His heart beat rapidly in his chest taking notice of the lack of oxygen in his system. Slowly, but surely, Naruto felt himself start to lose consciousness. Too make matters worse, or in this case better for Naruto, his head roughly collided with a rock completely knocking him out unconscious.

Up ahead Kiba could hear the rush and roar of a water fall. When he reached it he looked around frantically for any sign of Naruto. He didn't bother trying to sniff him out figuring that either the smell of the waterfall would mask Naruto's or that Naruto could still be masking his scent.

Further down Akamaru barked. Kiba turned to him and saw that he had something in his mouth that he couldn't quite make out. Kiba made his way towards the canine and the closer he got the more the image came into focus. It was orange with some other colors in it. Kiba picked up his pace realizing that it could be Naruto's jacket seeming as he was the only one would wear such a loud color.

Kiba took it from Akamaru's mouth and noticed it was Naruto's jacket. The thing just reeked of him. Then Kiba looked from the jacket to over the edge of the waterfall. "You don't think he would actually jump do you?" Kiba asked more to himself. Akamaru's barking brought Kiba out of his thoughts and back to the real world. Kiba turned to see Akamaru barking intently at the water. He looked over desperately trying to see what Akamaru saw. And then he saw it. Naruto's blond hair pierced the top of the water. It was only an instant, but that's all Kiba needed.

Kiba dropped Naruto's jacket and quickly unzipped his own throwing it on the ground besides Naruto's. "Akamaru, go around and meet me at the bottom." Kiba ordered as he prepared himself for the dive.

_But if you jump you could die. Why don't we both just go around? It'll be safer. _Akamaru said worriedly.

Kiba gave him a hard look. "We don't have time for that. Now go that's an order!" Kiba looked back down at the water. He bent his knees before he leaped off the cliff. It was a long dive before he finally hit the water.

Akamaru looked over the edge for Kiba. After a while Kiba swam back up, his head above the water. If Akamaru could sigh he would. He picked up both Kiba's and Naruto's jackets in his mouth and looked for a way to the bottom of the waterfall.

When Kiba came above the water he was shivering from the temperature of the water. "They weren't kidding when they said this was Konoha's coldest waterfall." Kiba said. His teeth were chattering and it being the middle of December didn't help at all.

Kiba took in a gulp of air before he dove back underwater in his search for Naruto. He opened his eyes underwater and lucky for him the water was clear enough to see through. He began swimming forward, turning his head left and right.

On his second breath he finally saw him. His body lay lifeless leaning against one of the rocks. Kiba swam to him and wrapped his arms around his body. He then swam upward pulling Naruto with him. Kiba started to feel his muscles start to go numb. It took all his strength to pull himself and Naruto above the water. Once above, Kiba swam to land. He pushed Naruto on first then pulled himself up.

Kiba's body was cold, numb and he was soaked to the bone, but he didn't care. He kneeled down besides Naruto. His skin looked like it was blue from being in the freezing water too long, and it didn't look like he was breathing. Kiba bent down placing his ear against Naruto's chest. He closed his eyes concentrating on finding a heartbeat, but ended up with nothing.

He lifted his head up and placed both hands over Naruto's chest, one over the other, and started pumping his chest. By then Akamaru had come up beside them, whimpering at a lifeless Naruto. Kiba pumped his chest a few times and then bent his head down listening for a heartbeat. Nothing. Again, he pumped his chest a few times and checked, getting the same result.

"Don't die on me!" Kiba said desperately. He used his thumb and index finger to pinch Naruto's nose shut and took his other hand to pull Naruto's mouth open. He bent his head down connecting both their lips and gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation. (AKA the kiss of life!)

Pretty soon Naruto started coughing vigorously spitting up water, but somehow managed to stay unconscious.

Kiba let go of Naruto and checked his heartbeat for a third time. He closed his eyes and prayed for something, anything. It felt like an hour had passed before he finally heard it. It was faint, but thanks to his advance ears he heard it clearly. And then another one and again. Kiba sighed as he lifted up his head. He had to get him to Lady Tsunade and fast.

He picked up Naruto's jacket and wrapped it around Naruto to keep him warm before picking him up in his arms. Naruto felt cold and lifeless in his arms. "Come on Akamaru we have to take him to lady Tsunade." Kiba said.

Akamaru barked and picked up Kiba's jacket before they left in a puff of smoke.

**A/N: **I won't be updating this story much since my main story is Divine Secrets so don't expect too many updates. Until next time!


	3. My Life After My Death

**A/N:** Yay third chapter! :]... that's all i have to say right now lol

_Naruto's P.O.V_

I woke up, my eyes flickering open. I took a look at the area around me and saw that I was surrounded by water. It took a while but I realized that I wasn't surrounded by water, I was _underwater_. I panicked realizing that I needed air. I squirmed underwater as I desperately tried to hold my breath. I felt my chest compress as I had no air in my lungs to begin with. I could feel my lungs and chest start burning. I had no choice but to let the breath I was holding go. I closed my eyes expecting to have swallowed tons of water and to be suffocating due to the lack of oxygen.

I waited and waited…nothing happened.

I opened my eyes to see that I was breathing underwater. How the hell was I breathing underwater?

I was currently laying on the bottom surface of…of… Where the hell was I? I pushed myself off the floor of wherever I was and stood up on my feet. I turned my head upward to see the sun's rays shining through the top of the water. I bent my knees and stretched my arms out above my head as I attempted to swim to the top.

My legs kicked and my arms stroked, but I just stayed in place. I kept trying to swim, but all my efforts seemed to be in vain as my feet stayed glued to the surface. I gave up trying to swim and several questions ran through my mind; why could I breathe underwater? Where was I? How did I get here? Why couldn't I swim when I was an excellent swimmer?

I started to panic not knowing the answer to any of these questions. Then I thought maybe this was a genjutsu. I put my hands together, tried to build up chakra, and said "Release!" I looked around and I was still underwater, still able to breath regularly, still unable to swim to the top, and still had no idea where I was or how I got here. That's when I noticed that everything was still and calm. There was no other life, but my own. No fish, plants, or even rocks. Only the solid ground I stood on.

Then all of a sudden, further down, I saw a bright white light. I hoped that I could still at least walk. I moved my leg hard enough to fight against the restraint of the water, but there was none. I could walk towards the light as if I was walking on land.

I finally reached the light. It was as big as a full body mirror and I was able to see a clear reflection of myself. Hesitantly, I lifted my hand up and reached out to it watching as my reflection did the same. My index finger came in contact with it. Ripples extended from where I had touched it and traveled all over the mirror of light. The ripples were slowly washing away my reflection.

I dropped my hand from it when I saw an image had started to appear on it. I squinted my eyes and leaned in a little to get a better view of it. The image was blurry and slowly coming into focus. Even though I couldn't see what was happening I could still hear it. I could hear the rush and roar of water as it moved. Then I could hear the muffled sound of someone talking. I couldn't make out what they were saying because of the loudness of the water.

The image finally came into focus and I could see a waterfall. That would explain the sound of rushing water, but where was the person whose voice I heard? It zoomed in to the edge of the waterfall and what I saw made me jump back and gasp.

It was me who was talking. I was looking intently over the waterfall before I backed up and took my jacket off leaving it on the ground. I watched myself take a deep breath before I ran forward and jumped off the edge and into the waterfall.

The image zoomed into me as I fell. Surprisingly I had a look of calm on my face despite that I was falling from about fifty feet into iced cold water. Then I watched in horror as I roughly hit the water. I stayed underwater for quite some time before I came back up above the water. I watched as I struggled to stay above the waterfall, fighting against the water's current, but plunged back down beneath it.

I starred wide-eyed at the image before me. The only thing that was showing now was the surface of the water I had just plunged into. I kept watching, waiting with anticipation to see if I came back above the water, but the image blurred back out again and returned to the bright white light showing my reflection once more.

I took a few steps back shocked at what I had just witnessed. I then looked down at my palms. Was that really me? If it was does that mean that I was dead? I took a look around. So where was I, in Heaven or Hell?

Behind me, another white light appeared. I turned around and looked at it. It looked exactly like the other one except this one was warm and called out to me. I slowly stepped towards it. I reached out to it just like I did the other one with my reflection mimicking my actions.

My hand was only merely inches away from it when I felt a wave of pain serge through my head. I clutched it in agony and fell to the ground on my knees. If I was dead how come I could feel pain?

I looked back up at the light. It seemed to be moving further and further away from me. The more it moved away the colder I started to feel and the more my head hurt. I looked down at the palms of my hands and saw that they were starting to turn blue. Then water leaked from my forehead and at first I thought it was only sweat until my whole body stared dripping water. My favorite orange jacket I had on disappeared from my body leaving me in my undeshirt. The clothes I had on were now soaking wet and dripping even though I was under water.

I looked back up to see that the warm, inviting, bright light was merely a speck by now. And that was the last thing I saw before I passed out and was surrounded by darkness.

_Regular P.O.V_

Lady Tsunade's head lay on the desk as she slept. A loud snore emitted from her mouth and echoed throughout the room and drool seeped from her mouth and landed in a small puddle on her desk. She was supposed to be attending to the large stack of paper work on her desk. But as usual when Shizune was nowhere to be seen, she decided to take a break which turned into her falling asleep at her desk, and ending up not getting any work done.

A cloud of smoke appeared in the middle of her office startling the Hokage. She sat up quickly in her seat and tried to play it off as if she was doing paperwork by taking a handful of them and tapping them vertically on her desk.

When the smoke cleared she saw that it was Kiba. She was about to calm down but then she noticed he was holding Naruto. Her eyes widened at the sight of Naruto unconscious, in his arms. The blond's skin was a pale blue and they were both dripping water all over her floor, but a wet floor was the least of her problems.

"Lady Tsunade we need your help!" Kiba said desperately.

Tsunade was brought out of her daze and jumped out of her seat. "Shizune!" She shouted for her apprentice. "What the hell happened?" She asked standing in front of the boy. She placed her middle and index fingers against Naruto's neck checking for a pulse. When her fingers made contact with his skin she jumped a little, surprised by how cold his skin was. She moved her fingers along his neck and was able to locate his pulse. It was faint, but there.

Kiba opened his mouth to explain what had happened, but was interrupted by Shizune barging through the door. "Lady Tsunade, what's-" She stopped midsentence when she saw Naruto in Kiba's arms.

"Notify the hospital and tell them to prepare an O.R. Tell them that there might be possible severe injuries and to prepare all the B positive blood." Tsunade barked at her. Despite her orders being given to her, Shizune just stood there staring at Naruto's dripping wet, unconscious form. She's never seen Naruto in such a bad condition before. "NOW!" Tsunade shouted.

Shizune jumped startled by the power in Tsunade's voice. She turned and ran out of the room and did as she was told.

Tsunade grabbed the blond from out of Kiba's arms. She looked up at him and saw something that she's never seen on Kiba before. Usually he would wear the mask that all Inuzukas wore to hide their emotions, but right now, right in front of her Kiba's emotional mask seemed to disappear and she could read him like a book. She could see that he was scared, frightened even. He was worried about Naruto, whether he'll live or not. She couldn't blame him for being worried. The boy had never experienced a friend this close to death before.

"Don't worry he'll be fine." Tsunade told him reassuringly, more for herself. Unfortunately that was a lie. She had no idea if he would be okay. From what she could see the chances of him surviving were very slim.

All Kiba did was give an unconvinced nod before Tsunade disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Kiba didn't move. He just stared at the spot Tsunade and Naruto were just at. Despite the Hokage's claim of Naruto being alright he knew that she was only saying that to make him feel better. He shivered realizing that he was still cold and soaking wet.

_You should go home and dry off before you get sick. _Akamaru said.

"I'm fine." Kiba said. "Let's just go to the hospital."

_At least put your jacket on. _Akamaru took his jacket from Akamaru and put it on, not even bothering to zip it up. The two of them made their way out of the Hokage Tower and to the Hospital.

/

Tsunade appeared in an O.R with several other medical ninjas. She placed Naruto on the operating table and everybody surrounded the blond. Tsunade placed both her hands on his chest. She closed her eyes and concentrated her chakra into her hands. A light green glow started emitting from them as she surveyed his injuries. . "His left ribcage is broken, back of his skull is slightly fractured, pulse is fading and suffering from primary hypothermia." Tsunade said.

When she opened her eyes she looked around the room to see everybody was just standing there with blank looks on their faces. "What are you waiting for, move!" Tsunade shouted. It may have seemed like she was acting bossier than usual, but it was only because she was scarred.

Everyone did as they were told and got started on treating Naruto. The first thing they would have to do was remove Naruto's wet clothing to prevent his body temperature from decreasing even more than it already had.

When they got Naruto's shirt off the sound of gasps filled the room. Everyone stared at the countless scars and slashes across his chest and abdomen. Even Tsunade seemed to be surprised by the sight as she went wide-eyed. She grabbed one of Naruto's arms and turned it to look at his forearm. Several more scars trailed down from his wrist all the way to his elbow.

Some of them seemed old and only a few days from completely healing, but the rest seemed fresh, like he must have done them sometime this week.

'_How long have you been doing this to yourself?' _Tsunade thought to herself taking pity on the boy.

Everyone seemed to have come out of their shock as they continued ridding the blond of his wet clothes. Then they worked on warming his body and Tsunade attended to his fractured skull. It only took about two minutes until his skull was completely healed. Next came the harder part; working on his broken ribs while making sure that he had no internal bleedings.

_Kiba's P.O.V_

I made it to the hospital and went to the front desk. "What room is Lady Tsunade operating in?" I asked the woman attending the desk.

She looked up from the form she was filling out. She saw me and seemed to give me a weird look probably noticing that I was soaking wet and dripping water all over the floor. Lucky for me she didn't question it. "She's in room three." She said. Me and Akamaru made our way down the hall, my sandals making that annoying squeaking squishing sound as I walked.

We soon found the operating room located down the hall. The red light above the door was glowing, meaning that they were still operating. We walked down the hall and sat in the bench outside of the operating room.

I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. Why were hospitals always so cold? And it didn't help that I was soaking wet. I pulled my jacket closer to me.

_Kiba you're going to get sick why don't you go home? _Akamaru said noticing that I was shivering. But I didn't listen to him. I just sat there shivering not caring if I got sick. I wouldn't leave until Tsunade walked out that door hopefully having good news.

The whole time as I sat there I couldn't get what Naruto had written in the letter out of my head.

_I can't believe that Naruto likes me. _I thought. _And he has for over a year now and I don't even know if I'm gay or not. I mean, I did have a crush on Hinata when we were kids, but that was a long time ago. Since then I never really thought about if I was gay or not. Though I sometimes got a boner from watching the guys change in the hot springs, but I always thought it was just hormones. I never actually imagined myself with anyone, neither a girl nor a guy. I just thought that maybe I was one of those people who really weren't attracted to anyone._

I placed my head in my hands starting to feel like I was getting a headache. I was sixteen, wasn't I supposed to now if I was gay or not already? Then another realization dawned on me. _What if I was gay, how would my mom react? I'm the heir of the clan meaning I was supposed to have kids. Worst yet, how will everyone else react when they found out? It's not like gay people are really accepted here. _I started freaking out. _I was okay with the fact that Naruto was gay, but I wasn't so sure if I was okay with me being gay. Damn how will my friends react? How will Hinata react? Will she even still want to be my friend after I told her? But the thing is I never once thought that Naruto or any other guy was attractive. _I started worrying so much that I started pulling on my hair.

_Kiba are you okay? _Akamaru asked me.

I stopped pulling on my hair and looked at him. "Yeah, I'm just stressed that's all." I said. This whole thing was just a big fucked up mess.

_O.R_

Things in the operating room had become less hectic as the only thing left to do was fix Naruto's ribcage. Tsunade was attending to the task, her hands sprawled out on his chest as she concentrated. Her hands glowed green as she focused on fixing Naruto's rib cage.

A loud rapid beeping broke her concentration and caught everybody's attention. "His heart rate is dropping." The Nin in charge of the heart monitor said.

"Dammit, we need to stabilize him fast!" Tsunade shouted.

_Naruto's P.O.V_

I groaned as I opened my eyes for the second time. I lay on my side on a hard surface and looked ahead of me as my vision stated to come into focus. All I saw was white.

I groggily stood up and now noticed that I was naked. I used both my hands to cover the lower half of my body, not knowing if I was alone or not. But then I remembered. It all came rushing back to me. Me waking up underwater, the vision I had of me jumping off the waterfall and dying, the pain I felt in my head before everything went black.

I moved my hands from my crotch and looked at my palms. I could see them turning from the blue they once were back to their regular tanned color right before my eyes. I turned my attention to what was ahead of me. Nothing. There was nothing ahead of me as far as I could see. I made a full turn looking all around me. I was surrounded by nothing but white.

So I was dead…but…does me being surrounded by white mean that I was in heaven? But the last time, when I was underwater, I had clothes, so what happened to them? Why was I naked?

I got the feeling again that maybe this was a genjutsu. That maybe somebody had created this illusion to distract me from the real world, but I couldn't use any jutsu or even build up chakra. That's what reminded me of Kyuubi. I couldn't feel him inside me. I looked down at my stomach and saw just that, my stomach. No seal or anything.

I lifted my hand up and ran it across my stomach. I felt empty without him. I've grown accustomed to always having him around and being able to talk to him, but now all that was gone.

I removed my hand from my stomach and looked up. I went down the list of the things I knew and didn't know. One; I was dead, I was sure about that, but how long have I been dead? I don't know. Two; where was I? Was I in Heaven or was I in Hell, or was I just in between? Three; I was naked. Why? I don't know, I just knew that I was, for some apparent reason. Four; Kyuubi was gone which meant I was all by myself. Considering the fact that I was naked, being alone was a good thing.

Not knowing where I was or what to do, I made I way forward. I walked aimlessly ahead, not knowing who or what I was going to find if there was a chance I might find anything at all.

As I walked I couldn't tell if I was getting anywhere. No matter how long I walked, the scene in front of me and all around me stayed white. Then my mind started to wander off thinking if anyone had found my body. I wondered if Kiba had actually came looking for me. I wondered if he even cared about me. After a while I realized I wasn't getting anywhere. There was nothing here. This emptiness was enough to drive anyone insane.

"_Naruto!" _

I snapped my head around at the sound of someone calling my name. "Hello!" I shouted. I stared off into the distance waiting for the response that never came. Instead I heard the growing sound of a beep. It continued to get louder to the point where I had to cover my ears to block it off, but that ended up being of no use as the beeping only got louder. I looked around trying to find the source of where the beep was coming from, but continued to see nothing but white emptiness. I closed my eyes shut desperately trying to block it off, but it only got louder. I fell to my knees starting to feel light headed.

What was happening and where was the beeping coming from, were the last two thoughts I had before everything went black for a second time.

I was really getting tired of this.

_OR_

_BEEEEEEEEEEEP, w_ent the heart monitor as it flat lined.

Tsunade starred wide-eyed at Naruto's lifeless body on the operating table. This wasn't happening. There was no way this was happening. "Defibrillate him!" She ordered.

One of the medical-nin stepped forward and made a series of hand signs before placing both her hands on Naruto's chest. "Clear!" She shouted and everybody took a step back. Volt s of electricity shot from her hands and into Naruto's chest. His upper body rose and fell on the operating table as the electricity surged throughout his body. The heart monitor still flat lined.

She rubbed her hands together and placed them on Naruto's chest. "Clear!" She shouted again. Naruto's upper body rose and fell on the operating table for a second time, but still the heart monitor flat lined. She attempted for a third time, rubbing her hands together and placing them on his chest sending volts of lightning through his body, but there was still nothing.

The whole operating room was quiet. The continuous beeping of the heart monitor being the only sound to fill the room. They all knew that it was too late. That he was gone and there was no way to bring him back.

The medical-nin removed her hands from Naruto's chest and turned to the clock on the wall. "Time of death." She started.

"Again, do it again." Tsunade interrupted. Everyone in the operating room turned their attention to the Hokage. She had a look of desperation on her face. The medical-nin had no choice but to rub her hands together again and place them on Naruto's chest. As she did so, Tsunade held her eyes on Naruto's face. She wasn't going to lose him no matter what.

"Clear." The medical-nin said less enthusiastically. For the fourth time Naruto's upper body rose and fell on the operating table.

Tsunade closed her eyes and waited for it. She knew it was coming…beep…beep. The heart monitor started up again. Tsunade let out a sigh. He was alive. Tsunade was utterly thankful for the miracle and hoped that nothing else would go wrong as they finished the surgery.

_Kiba's P.O.V_

I was tired, completely exhausted. My body was cold and I knew that if I didn't get out of these wet clothes that I was going to get sick.

Akamaru had fallen asleep by my feet so I figured it was night by now. Just watching Akamaru sleep made me even more tired than I already was, but I promised myself I wouldn't go to sleep until I knew if Naruto was okay. I was sitting here for about two hours now so shouldn't I already know by now? What was taking so long? Did them taking this long mean that something happened? If something did would they be able to fix it?

Just as if to answer my question, the light above the operating room turned off. I stood up so fast that the blood rushed to my head making me dizzy and I woke Akamaru up in the process.

The door opened and out came Lady Tsunade. She looked tired and I couldn't tell if the expression on her face meant Naruto was alive or not. "I have two good news and two bad news." She said stopping in front of me. "Which one do you want first?"

"The good news." I said without hesitation. "Is he okay?" I wanted to know, I _needed _to know.

"He gave us quite a scare, but don't worry he's fine." She reassured. I let out a breath that I didn't even know that I was holding. "The other good news is that the nine tails' chakra already started healing him so he'll be waking up sometime soon."

That was good. He was alive so what did Tsunade mean by 'bad news?' "So what's the bad news?" I asked.

"The bad news is that we don't know if when he wakes up If he'll have brain damage or not. That depends on how long blood and oxygen have been cut off from brain."

This just lowered my hopes. So he was alive, but he could have brain damage. Why couldn't anything just be simple for once? "So what's the other bad news?"

"Well that varies." Tsunade paused taking a deep breath. "Kiba…was what happened to Naruto done by him?"

I couldn't look Tsunade in the eyes as I said, "Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." I answered. I dug into my jacket pocket and pulled out the letter Naruto had written to me. "He wrote this letter to me saying he would." I said handing it to her.

She took the letter with a sigh. "Then the other bad news is that as soon as he wakes up he'll be put on suicide watch."

My eyes widened. "What?" I asked. It wasn't that I didn't know what it was. I knew exactly what it was. It was just that I couldn't believe it was happening.

"It means that he's not allowed to be left alone as long as he's in the hospital." Tsunade explained

Great! Things just continue to get worse. I can't believe this is actually happening. I knew that these types of things happen, but I never imagined it could happen to me or someone I knew, especially not Naruto. I mean, he was always happy and never showed any signs of it, but after reading the letter I realized that he was just really good at hiding it

"Kiba why don't you go home and get some rest, you look exhausted." Tsunade said and it was true. "If you'd like, you can come see him tomorrow."

I nodded my head too tired to even say anything and made my way out of the hospital with Akamaru right beside me. When I got outside I noticed that it was only beginning to get dark. The sun was about to go down leaving the streets of Konoha lit in an orange glow. Despite the earliness of the day, when I got home I stripped from my wet clothes and went straight to bed. This wasn't happening, this wasn't happening was the mantra I fell asleep to.

**A/N:** Okay i hope you guys liked the chapter. I tried to make as suspensful as i could. I hoped you enjoyed it because there is a lot ore to come. :] Next update will be fore _Divie Secrets_ so watch out for that.


	4. Confronting

Hi long time no see :P. Sorry for the failure to update this story, but I'm back now and ready to update. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

I woke up to the sun shining through my window onto my face, the sound of birds chirping outside my window and the sound of kid's laughter as they played. But the thing that really woke me up would have to be Akamaru's foot long tail smacking me in the face. I groaned as I rolled out of bed, only in my boxers, and stretched.

I let out a yawn as I made my way into the bathroom. I flicked the light switch and the lights slowly fluttered on. I starred at myself in the mirror. This is the first and definitely last time I say this but I looked like a mess. My eyes were bloodshot, my hair was a mess, and I was still tired despite how early I went to bed yesterday. And that's when I finally remembered that Naruto was in the hospital, that he had tried to kill himself because he couldn't take the way people were treating him anymore.

You have no idea how much I wish that was just a dream. How much I wish that I could just turn back time and stop this from happening.

I rid myself of my boxers and turned the shower on. I stepped in not really caring how cold it was. I just wanted this nightmare to be over.

I got out of the shower and walked out of the bathroom with a towel around my waist. I threw my boxers in the corner of my room and saw that Akamaru was just starting to wake up. "Morning." He said.

"Hey." I said with a smile. I took the towel from around my waist and started drying myself off. Most people would feel awkward if they were naked in front of their dog, but it didn't really bother me that I was naked in front of Akamaru. He was more like a brother to me than a pet and plus we've been together ever since we were little so I guess I just got accustom to it.

"Are we going to go see Naruto?" Akamaru asked me while I was getting dressed.

"Yeah." I replied. I could tell that my voice was sort of monotonous but how should I have sounded? I can't be depressed because Naruto's alive and he's going to be okay, well from what I know he is. And I can't be happy because I'm going to see him in the hospital and he's still unconscious. The worst part is, is that he might wake up and have brain damage. So I guess monotonous is kind of the in between.

I finished getting dressed and exited my bedroom, Akamaru following right behind me, and went into the kitchen. "Morning little bro." Hana said with a smile.

"Hey." I said trying to sound in my normal tone, but apparently it didn't work as she asked me what was wrong. "Nothing, I've just been stressed lately." I told her. Technically it wasn't a lie I really was.

"Oh, I know how you feel." She said. _No offense, but I highly doubt that._ I thought to myself.

"Breakfast?" She asked pushing a plate of food my way.

"No thanks I was just heading out." I said. I wanted to get to the hospital as soon as possible to check in on Naruto. Just my luck Akamaru whined from besides me. I sighed. "Alright fine I guess I am." I sat down at the table and Hana placed a plate of food in front of me and a bowl of food in front of Akamaru. Okay on second thought maybe I should eat before I visit him.

_(Regular P.O.V)_

"Konohamaru, slow down!" Moegi said as she and Udon ran trying to catch up to him.

"It's a race I'm not supposed to slow down!" Konohamaru said back at them. It was just as Konohamru had said, a race. A last minuet announced one at that.

"Come on it's not fare you had a head start." Moegi complained. "And we don't even know if he's there or even awake yet." By he she meant Naruto.

"You're just trying to distract me so you can get ahead of me, but it's not going to work." He said. He turned around to stick his tongue out at them, but because of that he ended up running into someone and falling into the ground. He sat on the ground rubbing his head in pain while Moegi and Udon ran past him. He noticed and got up off the ground. "Hey wait up!" He said starting off to run after them, but the person he had bumped into had grabbed him be his scarf holding him back.

"Oh. No you don't." A really built man with menacing eyes starred down at the genine.

"We win!" Moegi said between breaths.

Konohamaru was only a few steps behind. "That wasn't fare." He complained breathing heavily trying to catch his breath. They were just outside of Naruto's door.

"Don't be a sore loser just because you lost." Moegi teased.

"Grrr. I want a rematch!" Konohamaru said frustrated."

"Alright fine."

"Uh , guys aren't we here to see Naruto?" Udon interrupted."

"Oh yeah I forgot." Konohamaru said scratching the back of his head. He stepped up to the door and knocked. A whole minute passed with nothing and he knocked again, but harder. Again no answer. Eventually Konohamaru was banging on the door so hard he was threating to take it off its hinges.

"Maybe he's not there." Udon said.

"Oh come on he never plays with us anymore." Konohamaru whined. He finally stopped banging on the door. He turned and angrily marched down the stairs of the apartment complex.

"He's probably on a mission." Moegi chimed in.

"He better be or else I'll beat the crap out of him the next time I see him."

They walked aimlessly down the streets of Konoha not knowing what they were going to do. "What are we going to do now?" Udon asked.

"Let's go ask Lady Tsunade for a mission." Moegi suggested.

"Yeah, but remember what she said yesterday when we asked her?" Konohamaru said. He stuck out his chest and did a half assed impression of Lady Tsunade. "I'm sorry, but the only missions we have are ones inside the village so you better take it or leave it you little punks." Moegi and Udon couldn't help but laugh at the horrible attempt at imitating the Hokage.

"Hey look there's Kiba." Udon said. Everybody looked up to see the brunet and his companion walking up to them.

"Hey Kiba!" Konohamaru shouted to get his attention. The brunet looked up and noticed the three of them.

"Hey guys what's up?" Kiba said once he reached them. He didn't really talk to them or know them that well. All he knew was that they always hung around Naruto.

"Do you know where Naruto is?" Konohamaru asked.

This put Kiba in an awkward position. He definitely couldn't tell them what had actually happened. It'll freak them out and probably scar them for life. "Oh no, sorry I haven't seen him." Kiba said.

"Oh come on!" Konohamaru said in frustration.

"What do we do now?" Udon asked.

"Can you help us train?" Konohamaru asked the brunet.

"Uh…" Kiba said hesitantly

"Please." He begged.

"Sorry I'm kind of busy right now." Konohamaru groaned. "But if you want Akamaru can help you." Said dog looked up at his master.

"But he's just a dog what can he do?" Konohamaru argued. Feeling offended Akamaru turned his attention to the three and growled. They huddled together in fear of what Akamaru was going to do.

"G-good boy." Moegi stuttered.

Kiba smiled. "Have fun guys." He said before walking off.

"Wait you can't just leave us here with him." Konohamaru said.

"Sure I can." Kiba said continuing to walk off.

Akamaru barked and the three of them ran off screaming. _This will be fun. _Akamaru thought to himself before he ran after them.

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

For a moment I actually had a smile on my face since the past twenty-six hours. But that didn't last long because I soon remembered where I was going. It wasn't long until I finally reached the hospital. I swear I hate hospitals. Despite the fact that It's always freezing cold in there for no reason, I always got a bad vibe every time I was even near one and it didn't help that I had a stronger than average sense of smell because they always smelt of death. I guess these are the things that give people a fear of hospitals.

"Um excuse me, what room is Naruto Uzumaki in?" I asked the lady at the front desk.

She looked up from what she was doing at me, then moved to a clipboard with the patience's name and what room they were in. "He's in room 213." She said. "It's right down that hall." She pointed.

"Thanks." I said before I walked of. To be honest I really didn't know what to expect. He could be wrapped up in bandages and look like a mummy for all I know.

I finally found the room and walked in closing the door behind me. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. He only had bandages around his head and across his chest, well from what I could see. He was unconscious as expected. I walked over to him and sat in a chair beside his bed side. I sat there watching the rise and fall of his chest.

I wonder how long it would be until he finally woke up. But when he does I guess I'm going to have to confront him about what he wrote in the letter about him liking me, but what am I going to say? _'Sorry Naruto I don't like you so I guess you're going to have to get over me.'_ He's been through a lot I can't just shoot him down like that._ 'Sorry Dude I don't know what I am yet.' _That's too embarrassing. Doesn't everybody know what they are by now?

I sighed rubbing my temples. Why is it so complicated to figure this out? I turned my attention back to Naruto. His skin had turned back to its natural tanned color which was a good thing considering the last time I saw him he was a pale blue and he was freezing cold.

My eyes traveled down to his bandaged chest. I watched as it slowly rose and fell. He was breathing, another good sign. I guess I was just trying to convince myself that he was a hundred percent okay. His arms lay above the bed sheets at his sides, but that wasn't what caught my attention. What did were the scars the went up and down both his arms. For some reason I couldn't look away. For a moment I thought '_was Naruto actually capable of doing this to himself?' _But then I remembered that he tried to kill himself and realized how stupid that thought was.

The door opened and I finally looked away from his arms. I turned to see Lady Tsunade walking in the room. "Oh, Kiba you're here early." She said.

"Yeah." I said giving her a smile. I turned my attention back to Naruto. "Did he do that to himself?" I asked referring to his arms. I know that it was a stupid question, but I just hoped that she would say that I was wrong, but she didn't.

Her eyes turned to him. "Yes I believe so." She said. She sounded like she didn't want to believe it herself. I guess none of us really expected Naruto to be capable to do something like this. "Can I talk to you outside for a second?" She asked. Her tone was serious and I hoped that she didn't have any more bad news.

"Sure." I said. I got up and followed her out of the room.

She closed the door behind her and didn't waste any time getting down to what she wanted to talk about. "Kiba I've read the letter that Naruto wrote." She started off. "And I hope that your opinion of him hasn't changed due to his sexual preferences."

'_Sexual preferences?' _I thought to myself. _Why did she have to get all proper with it? _Then I realized that she was waiting for me to respond. "Uh, no not at all." I Said.

She gave me a weird look before continuing. "If you don't mind I'd like you to keep all of this confidential. The attempt and most especially his preferences. It's not our place to tell anyone about that, it's up to Naruto to decide whether or not if he wants people to know, understood?"

I nodded my head. Even without her saying so I would have never told anyone that Naruto was gay. I know how being gay is frowned upon by almost everyone in the village.

Lady Tsunade smiled at me. "Good, I appreciate it." She said, "He means a lot to me and I wouldn't want anything like 'that' to come between him and his friends." She turned to walk back into the room.

_That's it? _I thought to myself. I thought she read the whole letter so why didn't she bring it up? Well she might be done talking, but I wasn't. "Uh, wait." I said. She was only inches away from the door when she turned around.

"Hmm, what's wrong?" She asked.

I looked away, anywhere but at her. I couldn't believe that I was going to ask this, but if someone was going to know she would right? "Uh, you said you read the whole letter right?" I asked. I still couldn't bring myself to look at her.

"Yeah, why?" Even though I wasn't looking at her I could tell that she was giving me a weird look.

"Then you know that he uh." I trailed off. I was pretty sure she knew where I was going with that.

"Yeah I know." She said. I finally looked up at her. "I didn't want to bring it up, because I didn't want you to think that I was digging into your life. But now that you bring it up, do you feel the same way about him?"

I looked up and down the hall to see if anyone was there. I know I might have been over reacting a bit, but do you know how bad it would be if word got out that the heir of the Inuzuka Clan was gay? "Uh, I honestly don't know what I am." I admitted. "And I wanted to ask you about that." She gave me a questionable look. "Uh, is it weird that I don't know what I am yet?" I was so embarrassed that I actually said that.

She smiled. "It's nothing to worry about. Some people still don't even know when they're my age." _You're age? But you're like fifty. _I thought to myself. "It's just the normal part of being a teenager. Everybody goes through it sooner or later."

"Thanks." I said giving her a nervous smile.

We walked back into the room. I took my place back in the chair besides Naruto's hospital bed. Lady Tsunade walked up to him and placed her hands on Naruto's head and the next thing I knew her hand was glowing green. While she did that my eyes traveled back down to Naruto's arms. I wish I could have done something earlier.

Tsunade interrupted my thoughts. "If we're lucky enough, he'll be awake within a few days."

"That's good news." I said.

"If he wakes up and you're here make sure you get me." She ordered and I nodded my head. She started making her way to the door. "I wouldn't stay long if I were you. Remember you are a ninja and you do need to train." She said before she left the room.

I would but the only thing is, is that I have _NO _idea where Akamaru is.

_(Regular P.O.V)_

"Ahh he's heavy!" Moegi complained.

"Get off of us!" Konohamaru demanded.

Akamaru had chased them into the training grounds. The only thing is the fifty ton dog that was the size of twenty dogs put together was currently laying on top of them. They struggled to get from underneath the great beast, but their efforts turned out to be futile as he didn't even budge.

"What are we going to do now?" Udon asked.

"I have an idea." Konohamaru said. He put his hands together in a hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He shouted and three clones appeared in front of them. They each grabbed onto one of the three. "Okay on three." One of the clones said. "One…two…THREE!" He shouted and they all pulled and tugged them from underneath Akamaru.

"Way to go Konohamaru." Moegi said as she dusted herself off.

The clones disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "Thanks." Konohamaru said with a cheeky grin. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to outwit the Konohamaru ninja squad." With that said Akamaru leaped up and snatched Konohamaru's scarf off from around his neck and ran off into the trees. "Hey get back here!" Konohamaru shouted after the canine. He took off full speed after him.

"Konohamaru wait." Udon said as he and Moegi followed.

_(Naruto's P.O.V)_

I can't see SHIT! Its pitch black and I have no idea where I am. Well I didn't know where I was before, but still. Even though I couldn't see I could still hear things. I'm not sure what it was I was hearing, but I think its people. I can't really make who they are or what they were saying. It sounded all muffled and unclear.

Maybe this was just like when I was 'under water', when I saw myself on top of the waterfall before I jumped. But there was a light last time and I could see what was happening. I thought the voices would clear up like it did last time but it didn't. They only faded away until I couldn't hear them anymore.

Suddenly, a dimly lit light appeared not too far ahead of me. I slowly made my way towards it not knowing what to expect. Once I stepped into the light I also stepped into water that was barely ankle high. I also realized that I had clothes on this time.

I kept walking and the further down I walked, the more this place felt familiar. The smell of wet dog hit me like I just got punched in the stomach by Tsunade. I came to a dead end and my only options were to either go left or right. If I was actually where I thought I was then if I went left then I should meet him.

My suspicions turned out to be true as I came upon a seemingly endlessly high cage with metal bars. Behind it was none other than Kyuubi. Then it hit me. If I was supposed to be dead then that meant that I was supposed to have lost all contact with him. But since I was here that means that something had happened.

"Hey fox!" I shouted. His big red eyes opened to look down at me and he became visible within the cage. "What happened?" I asked him. "I thought…" I started off, but stopped seeming as I didn't know what I thought by this point.

A big grin formed on the fox's face. **The Inuzuka actually pulled through and saved you. **He said. My eyes widened. So Kiba really did come to save me. **You actually gave him quite a scare. **

"Wait so I'm alive?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.

**Yeah, that hokage of yours almost busted a nut trying to heal you. Especially when your heart stopped.**

I looked down. I honestly didn't expect Kiba to come after me, and if he did I hadn't expected him to get to me in time. And apparently Lady Tsunade worked her ass off to save me. I looked back up at Kyuubi. "Where am I know?" I asked.

**You're in the hospital. The Inuzuka boy is there with you and the hokage was just there a minute ago.**

_So those were the voices that I heard earlier. _I thought to myself. "Can you wake me up?"

**I can give you some of my chakara, but that won't last long.**

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

I sat there still confused about everything, still not sure of how I was going to confront Naruto when he finally woke up, and still clueless as to what to say about him liking me. The only good thing that came out of this was Lady Tsunade telling me that I wasn't weird for not knowing if I was gay or not.

I let out a sigh feeling frustrated.

"hmmm."

My head snapped up at the sound of a groan and I turned to Naruto. Lady Tsunade said that he'd be awake soon, but I didn't expect him to be up this fast. I stared at him waiting for any other signs of him waking up. _Maybe I'm just imagining it. _I thought to myself but I was proven wrong once I saw his face scrunch up and his eyes slow start to open, and I finally saw them; those big ocean blue eyes that only belonged to Naruto.

He turned his head to me and it wasn't until then that I realized that I was holding in my breath. He gave me a tired smile and I couldn't help but smile back. "Hey dog breath." Naruto said in a raspy voice. I couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

He tried to sit up in the bed, but his face cringed in pain. "Don't try to move." I said a little too commandingly. He looked at me but nonetheless laid back down. "Uh, wait here." I said as I started to back out of the room to get Lady Tsunade.

_(Regular P.O.V)_

Akamaru came to a stop at another training ground just further down.

"Give me back my scarf!" Konohamaru demanded as he landed in front of him. Udon and Moegi landed behind him. They slowly crept up on him, Konohamaru from the front and Udon and Moegi from the back. Once they were only a few feet away from him they all jumped attempting to tackle him. Unfortunately for them Akamaru jumped up at the last minute and they ended up falling on top of each other.

"Grr DAMN DOG!" Konohamaru shouted loud enough to scare the birds from out of the trees.

_(Naruto's P.O.V)_

I lay there in the hospital bed staring up at the ceiling. Kiba left the room before I even had the chance to ask him if he felt the same way about me as I did him. Well maybe he does. I mean he did come to save me and he stayed with me here at the hospital. Not to mention the look on his face when I woke up.

I stopped with my thoughts realizing that I was thinking too much of it.

The door opened and I expected Kiba to be the one walking in. I was right, but he wasn't alone. Lady Tsunade walked in right after. Her eyes immediately went to me. They held a mixture of emotions, relief, worry, horror, but the worst one of all was the look of disappointment she gave me as she stood by my bedside. I couldn't take her looking at me like that so I just looked away anywhere but at her, but I could still feel her looking at me with great disappointment.

"Kiba help me sit him up." She said. They placed their hands under me and adjusted me so that I was sitting up in the bed. My head tilted down and I stared down into my lap.

"How are you feeling?" She asked me.

I didn't answer. I just kept staring down at my lap. I just couldn't bring myself to look at her. She sighed realizing that I wasn't going to talk.

"Why didn't you come to one of us? We could have helped you get through this." She said. _Here comes the lecture. _I thought to myself.

"You should have let me know that the villagers were doing that to you. I could have done something." She went on, but what she didn't know was that would only make things worse. Declaring a law that everyone in the village is supposed to be nice with me wouldn't go over well with them. "There are plenty of people in the village that care about you. Kiba risked his life to save you."

Still I said nothing. I couldn't handle the fact that she was giving me a lecture, especially not now.

Seeing that I wasn't talking she sighed. "I'll be back later to check up on you." She said before walking out of the room leaving just me and Kiba.

"Uh she was really worried about you." Kiba said. "I'm sure that's why she was-"

"Why did you save me?" I cut him off, still looking down at my lap. I could tell that my voice was low and raspy, but I knew he heard me.

"Because I care about you Naruto." He said. I finally looked up at him. He had the same goofy smile he had when I woke up. _Yeah but in the way that I care for you? _I thought to myself and then he said it. "You're my friend."

"Do you like me?" I finally asked. "I mean how I like you?" His smile dropped and he looked away from me. I guess that's my answer. I leaned back into the bed feeling stupid. Of course he didn't like me. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up like that.

"No I don't." He said. It hurt even more to hear him say it. "But I don't even know if I'm gay or not. I haven't even thought about it until now."

I turned to look at him and could see that he was blushing. _Oh great now I'm the reason why he's confused about if he's gay._

"I'm sorry." He said.

Right now I felt horrible. Why did he have to save me? Why couldn't he have just let me die? All I ever do is make everyone's life worse.

I turned my attention to Kiba and saw that he was staring at me. Well not at me more at my arms. I moved them so they were in front of my stomach.

His eyes traveled up until they met mine. "Why did you do that to yourself?" He asked. His chocolate brown eyes were full of worry. I couldn't handle that look especially since it was coming from Kiba. I looked down.

**Kit make it quick, the chakara I gave you is wearing off.** Kyuubi said.

"I'm kind of tired; can you help me lay down?" I asked Kiba trying to evade the question.

Kiba got up and helped me lay down. I turned my head to the side and looked at him as he sat back down in the chair. I could feel Kyuubi's chakara fading and I started to feel tired. I turned to look up at the ceiling and slowly closed my eyes.

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

I sat there watching Naruto as he slept. I know it sounds really creepy, but I did. Since it seemed that he wasn't going to wake up for a while I decided I'd go train, but I would have to find Akamaru first. I wonder what they were doing anyway.

I left the hospital and made my way to the training field. Hopefully I saw him on the way and wouldn't have to go looking for him.


	5. The Arrangement

**A/N: **Yes this sory is back finally! :D hope you enjoy the chapter

* * *

><p><em><span>(Naruto's P.O.V)<span>_

I opened my eyes to face the white ceiling of the hospital. I was alive; there was no doubting that now. I struggled to push myself up to sit up in the hospital bed. I still felt a sharp pain in my chest as I did so just like the last time I tried to sit up on my own, but this time it wasn't that intense and managed to push myself up. Kiba wasn't here and I really didn't expect him to actually show up.

I looked down at my open palms. How could I have failed? It was a simple plan, but somehow I managed to mess it up. I guess I hadn't planned for Kiba finding me, I mean I did cover up my scent, but I didn't expect him to still get to me in time. Hell I didn't even think he would even bother to come looking for me. But I guess everyone was right by saying that I was a failure, I can't even kill myself properly.

My head snapped up at the sound of the door opening. Kiba stopped just in the doorway. He had a bag in his hand and he looked sort of surprised to see me awake.

A small smile made its way on my face at the site of him. I was falling for him fast and I knew that I had to get over him, but I just don't think that I can.

Kiba smiled at me and I looked away trying to hide the blush that I knew was on my face. "I didn't expect you to be up yet." He said. I heard the door close and his footsteps as he made his way closer to my bedside.

"I brought you something." He said and I looked up to him. He was sitting in the same chair he was yesterday. His hand reached into the bag he came in with and slowly pulled out what I instantly knew was a bowl miso pork ramen from Ichiraku's. He handed the bowl to me and I placed it on my lap.

The stared down at the bowl warming up legs. Just the scent of it was enough to make my stomach growl. I swear this is the number one thing that I miss and was beyond glad to have this in front of me, but I guess I didn't have the reaction Kiba was looking for because he asked me what was wrong.

"Nothing's wrong." I said giving him a huge grin. But his face staid serious and I knew that he didn't believe me.

"Come on, talk to me." Kiba said and I was a little taken aback by this.

"Seriously I'm fine."

"Naruto, I can tell when someone's lying." My smile dropped and I looked back to the ramen in my lap. "I'm here for you."

At that I gripped the bed sheets so tight that my hands hurt. "Alright fine you want to know what's wrong?" I said angrily towards him. "What's wrong is that you are just now starting to care about me. You said you're here for me now, but where were you when I really needed you? Where were any of you? I thought you could use that nose of yours to pick up on someone's mood? Either you really don't care that much or you're as blunt as I thought you were! If you're so good at telling when someone is lying how come you couldn't tell all those other times when I lied and said I was alright?!"

My eyes were set in a hard glare towards Kiba. My chest rose and fell violently from my explosion. I sat there waiting for Kiba to respond, to say some smart ass response, but instead his eyes fell to look at the ground and I could tell that he was hurt by what I had said. My eyes softened and I instantly wished that I could take it back.

"I did get this feeling that something was wrong, but I never thought too much of it because you always seemed so happy." Kiba said just barely above a whisper. "You're right, I am blunt. I should have said something when I felt something was wrong. If I did, maybe none of this would have happened. You wouldn't have felt alone and wouldn't have tried to…" Kiba trailed off as if he was struggling to say it; struggling to say that I tried to kill myself because I felt so alone.

"This is all my fault." He finally said.

"Hey did you bring chop sticks? I better eat this ramen before it gets cold." I smiled at him trying desperately to change the subject. I couldn't sit here and let Kiba blame himself for something that was my decision to do.

Kiba pulled out a pair of chopsticks and handed them to me with a small smile.

It wasn't long until I finished eating. I was actually really glad that Kiba had brought me it. It was like I had fallen in love with Ichiraku's all over again.

It wasn't until then that I noticed that Kiba was here by himself. "Where's Akamaru?" I asked.

"He's with those kids Konohamaru and them. Yesterday they came up to me asking if I knew where you were and I said I didn't so I just let Akamaru hang out with them since I was already on my way to the hospital and I let them play with him for a while today."

I can't believe that I had forgotten about them. I wonder how they would react if they found out that I had killed myself. "Thanks." I said.

I lifted the bowl of ramen to my mouth and chugged the rest of it down just as the door opened and in walked Lady Tsunade. "Good to see you're up early." She said as she made her way towards me. This was a much better reaction compared to the one she had yesterday.

Kiba took the empty bowl of ramen from me and placed it on the floor so Tsunade could start my daily checkup. She put one hand on my chest and the other on my back and I could feel her chakra start running through me as her hands glowed a light green.

"How do you feel?" She asked in a soft tone.

"I'm feeling better." I said not wanting to piss her off by not answering like I did yesterday. "The Kyuubi's chakra is really helping to heal me faster. I'll be back to a hundred percent and out of here in no time."

"About that." Tsunade said. She took her hands off my back and chest and I felt her chakra stop flowing through me. I could tell by the look on her face that whatever she was about to say wasn't going to be good.

"When you are back to a hundred percent and are able to leave the hospital, because of what happened I am going to have to hire an Anbu to keep watch over you."

"No, Tsunade please-" I tried begging her to change her decision, but she cut me off.

"I don't want to hear it." She said in a stern tone. She gave me a hard glare and I dropped my gaze to my lap. "I can't just let you out of here and hope that everything will go back to normal. I can't take the chances of this happening again and there needs to be someone there to watch over you when I can't."

I gripped the bed sheets tight as I felt anger rise up in me. She knew the villagers hated me so what made her think the Anbu were any different. The villagers only beat me up and threatened to kill me, but I know an Anbu wouldn't hesitate to kill me and claim that it was in self-defense, that I had gotten out of hand.

My grip around the bed sheets tightened and I was now baring my teeth. Now I was regretting ever having to try and kill myself.

_Kiba's P.O.V._

I sat there watching as Naruto balled the sheets up in his fist. It was obvious that he didn't want to be watched over by an Anbu but Tsunade was right; he couldn't be trusted alone. Who knows what he might do and I couldn't agree with Tsunade's decision to make someone watch over him even more. But still, I couldn't help but feel bad for him.

And then Naruto's words from earlier rang through my head. How he said I was never there for him when he really needed it. How he said I couldn't tell when something was wrong with him when I actually did, but didn't think there was something wrong since he always had a smile on his face, but now I know better. Now I'm here and I can do something for him.

Before I even knew it, my mouth opened and the words just came flying out. "Tsunade, what if I watch over him?" I said. My words seemed to have taken everybody by surprise as Tsunade looked at me and Naruto, who finally looked up from his lap, stared at me in shock. My words had even taken me by surprise. Before I knew it I was volunteering to take the responsibility of watching over him.

"Kiba, I'm sorry but I can't let you do that. You'd be taken away from all your missions if you did and I can't let you do that." Tsunade said.

"Not if you make watching over Naruto my mission." I said. It was too late to take back what I said and besides, I messed before by not helping him when I knew something was wrong so maybe this could make up for it.

"You don't even have to pay me, I'll do it for free and he can come live with me. I have my own house on the compound and he can move there with me so I can keep an extra good eye on him." I continued.

I could tell Tsunade was considering whether or not to agree to this and I was hoping she was going to say yes.

Finally, she let out a sigh. "Alright fine, but you can't neglect your missions for too long, your skills are too much of an asset to this village, same goes for you." She turned and looked at Naruto. "As soon as he's better the both of you are going to have to catch up on the missions you've missed."

"Yes!" I shouted out in victory.

"Naruto, I'll be back later to check up on you. Kiba your mission starts as soon as he's able to leave the hospital and failure is _not _an option." Tsunade said putting emphasis on 'not'. She turned and exited the room.

I could tell I had a huge grin on my face. Now Naruto can never say I was never there for him. I turned to face him to see he was still staring at me with a shocked expression on his face.

"Why did you do that?" He said just above a whisper.

I was taken aback by this. I expected him to be a lot happier by the fact that he'd be living with me instead of having an Anbu watch over him, but I guess I was expecting a little too much.

"What do you mean why?" I asked, my excitement slowly fading.

"Sorry, I'm grateful and all but Tsunade was right, you can't neglect your missions. Plus, I'll only be in your way. Trust me, I'll be nothing but a nuisance to you; that's all people ever say I am."

"Stop doing that!" I said starting to get angry. My expression had completely changed and I was now glaring down at him.

"What?" He asked seeming confused.

"Stop bringing yourself down, you're not a nuisance. I know the villagers called you things like that but none of that is true. No matter what you say Tsunade already agreed to let me watch over you and that's exactly what's going to happen. Now I'm going to find Akamaru and you should get some rest. The sooner you get better the sooner you can move in with me." By the end of my rant I was out of breath, my chest heaving up and down.

_Naruto's P.O.V_

Kiba finished his rant and left taking the empty bowl of ramen with him.

I sighed and fell back on the bed so that my head lay on the pillow. This was the worst thing ever I couldn't be moving in with Kiba of all people.

**What's wrong with that? I thought you'd be jumping for joy at the opportunity to live with him. **Kyuubi said from inside my head.

"Yeah, but the last time I checked the best way to get over a crush that doesn't feel that same way about you wasn't to move in with them where you have to see them every day." I said. "Living with him will only make things awkward between us and could possibly ruin what friendship we have."

**Or he could share the same feelings as you do and you two can become more than friends. He never did say he would never share the same feelings for you.**

"Yeah right, like that's going to happen. We both heard him say that he wasn't even sure if he's gay yet."

**Just because he doesn't know what he is yet doesn't mean that your chances with him are ruined. In fact, your chances of getting him have increased. All you have to do is seduce him into liking you.**

"I'm not going to do that. For all I know that'll only confuse him more and I care about him too much to do that to him."

**Apparently he really cares about you too if he risked his life to save you and even went as far as to offer for you to live with him instead of being watched over by some Anbu. He saw how upset the thought of that made you so he wanted to make you happy.**

I know what Kyuubi was trying to do. He was trying to get me to think that everything was going to be okay; that there was a chance of me and Kiba being together. "I'm just going to be his housemate and that's it. As far as you're concerned I don't have any affection towards him whatsoever."

I needed to clear my head. This conversation was making me feel worse than I already did. My heart beat fast in my chest, my breathing picked up, and my right index finger tapped rapidly at my side and I knew it was only moments until I did something that I was going to regret and there wasn't anyone around to stop me.

_Kiba's P.O.V_

I found Akamaru at one of the training grounds with Konohamaru and his friends. As we walked back to the hospital I told Akamaru about my agreement to take Naruto in and it wasn't until now that I realize how difficult this might actually be.

At first I thought it would be easy. Me and him were friends so him moving in didn't seem that bad at the time, but now I remember how Naruto wanted to be more than friends with me, how he said he liked me in the letter and in person. Now that might make things a little awkward between us since we're living under the same roof.

Then there was the fact that Naruto was suicidal. Did I have what it would take to comfort him? What if I say something that makes him lose it? Even worse what if me being there causes a problem for him?

I wish I would have thought about all this before I offered to watch over him. Maybe that's why he had the reaction he did, because he knew how hard that would be for him. For all I know he's so unstable anything could set him off, but he didn't seem to be that unstable in the hospital room or what if he was just faking it. He couldn't have been I was there, I would have sensed if something was wrong with him, but I know how good I was with that in the past.

We made it back to Naruto's room. I let out a sigh before opening the door. I started to walk into the room, but instantly stopped in my tracks. My eyes widened and my jaw was literally hanging open. Beside me I heard Akamaru bark confirming that what I was seeing was true. That the hospital bed that once held Naruto was now empty.

My eyes scanned the whole room looking for clues, anything that would lead me to where he went off to, but found nothing.

How could I have failed my mission before it even started? Now I was going to have to tell Tsunade that he ran off and who knows what she might do to me once I tell her, but I had no other choice. I was about to turn to leave the room when I noticed the window beside the bed was wide open.

I ran to the window and looked out of it. His scent was still strong so he couldn't have left too long ago. I still had a chance to catch up to him before he did anything to drastic.

Why would I think it was a good idea to leave him alone in the first place? I knew how unstable he was and still l thought it was good idea to leave him alone. But now wasn't the time to be complaining, I had to find him before it was too late.

I jumped out of the window, Akamaru right behind me. We ran across the rooftops following Naruto's scent. All the while my mind raced as I tried to figure out where he would have gone off to and none of those places were good.

Eventually, his sent led us back to the forest. The same one where we followed his scent only two days ago when he tried to kill himself and I knew where he was going. But this time it was easier since he didn't mask his scent.

_Was he trying to kill himself again?_ I wondered if this is what it would be like when Naruto moved in with me. Him always running away trying to kill himself and me constantly chasing after him trying to stop him before it was too late. If it was then I had a long road ahead of me.

The sound of rushing water coming from the waterfall slowly grew louder as I got closer. As it did, Naruto's scent also started fading. Not because he masked it but because the flow of the waterfall was carrying it away.

It felt like an eternity until we finally came across the clearing of the waterfall. My eyes instinctively scanned the area looking for Naruto and I spotted him standing at the edge of the waterfall staring down into the cold icy water. He was still in the hospital clothes and I could see him shivering despite how far he was from me.

My heart sank at the sight of him. He was really going to try and kill himself again.

"Naruto!" I shouted but I doubt he could hear me over the loud roar of the waterfall. "Naruto, don't do it!" I shouted again and before I knew it I was running towards him.

_Naruto's P.O.V_

The water, so beautiful, but also so fierce and destructful at the same time.

I looked over the edge of the water fall remembering the last time I was here. Remembering all the emotions I was feeling. How badly I wanted everything to just end. To get away from everything, but here I was once again staring down into the icy cold water.

Despite how hot it was outside, being this close to the waterfall made it feel a lot colder than it actually was and my body was shaking. But I wasn't shaking because I was cold, in fact I didn't even feel how could it was. I was shaking because being here, in the place where I tried to end it all, was only bringing back bad memories.

Sasuke leaving the village all because I admitted that I had feelings for him then trying to kill me when we went after him. The villagers all treating me like shit. Calling me a monster and saying that I should die. And here I was, right in the place where I could give them all what they want; for me to be dead. And no one knew I was here so I could easily get away with it. This was a second chance for me to succeed at it.

I wrapped my arms around my body and bit my lip as I tried to fight back my urges, but the longer I stood here staring down into the water the more my urges grew. They grew so bad that I ended up biting into my lip so hard that I made it bleed.

_If I do it now I could end it all. _I thought to myself just before I slowly started to move my foot forward so that it wasn't on solid ground and was now hovering high above the rushing water. All I had to do was lean forward and that would be it.

I leaned my weight forward, my mind racing with all the things the villagers did to me the emotional wreck that Sasuke turned me into. I was ready to do this, ready to go over into the waterfall once again and then I was being jerked back away from the edge, my feet stumbling to find solid ground. I would have fell to the ground if it weren't for something holding me up by both my shoulders.

My eyes slowly shifted up and they were met by the menacing glare of Kiba. He was giving me the same look Tsunade did the first day I woke up. A look of pure anger and disappointment.

I couldn't handle being given that look especially not now so I looked down to avoid his gaze.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Kiba asked. His voice came out sounding more worried than anything else and that only made me feel even worse.

"I needed to get out of the hospital and clear my head so I came here. This place calms me down a lot so that's why I came here." I said explaining why I had came here.

"Yeah and that's why you were just about to jump off it right? Because you sure looked calm when you were about to step off it." His voice was sounding sarcastic and his grip on my shoulders tightened a little.

I sank back at his words. My body started shaking more violently now. The feelings that I was feeling before only intensifying by the second.

I felt Kiba's grip loosen before they were completely removed. I couldn't see what he was doing because I kept my head down, but I heard the unzipping of his jacket.

"Here put this on." Kiba said pushing his leather jacket in my direction.

Instead of taking it like he expected me to, I just looked up and stared at it. I figured that he took my shaking as a sign that I was cold but he had no idea how off he was. I didn't take it, only turned around and began to trudge back to the hospital.

_Kiba's P.O.V._

I let out a sigh as Naruto turned around and walked off completely ignoring my gesture to give him my jacket.

I put it back on and walked with him back to the hospital. This time I made sure to keep a good eye on him.

From beside me I heard Akamaru bark. _"He's so depressed, I bet even the slightest comment can cause him to break down."_

"Don't worry Akamaru I'm not that much of an emotional wreck. Besides, everything's going to be better soon." Naruto said.

I stared at him in shock. Since when could he understand Akamaru? More importantly, what did he mean by 'everything's going to be better soon'? Whatever it was didn't sound too good. It seems that Akamaru got the same bad feeling as I did as he started whimpering beside me.

We got back to the hospital and had to jump across the rooftops to avoid being seen and climbed back through the hospital window that Naruto had climbed out of earlier.

He got back into the hospital bed and laid back down turning on his side making sure that he was facing away from me.

"So that's it, you're just going to act like nothing just happened? You don't want to talk about it or anything?" I asked. If he was going to be living with me for whoever knew how long, then he would have to start talking to me.

"Talk about what? I needed some air so I stepped out and went to the waterfall. There's nothing to talk about." Naruto said.

"Yes there is, like maybe the reason that made you go to the waterfall and nearly jump off of it again."

I didn't get a response. He only continued to lay there in silence.

Seeing that I wasn't going to get an answer from him, I let out a sigh. "Alright fine, don't talk to me if you don't want to but you can't just pretend that none of this happened." I felt anger build up in me by the second. I had to get out of here especially since me being angry with him wouldn't make him feel any better.

"Since you're up and walking it won't be long until you move in with me so I'm going to go make sure everything is ready for when you do. Akamaru will stay here and watch over you while I'm gone."

"I don't need to be baby sat." Naruto said.

"Yeah I thought that to but look what happened." I wanted to say but knew that would only make things worse for him so opted on saying, "I'm sorry but it has to be done." I said before walking out of the hospital.

When I made it to my house, I made sure to get Naruto's room ready for when he came. I never really slept in here. I usually sleep at my mom's house with Hana mainly because I get breakfast in the morning, but it seems like I was going to have to get used to waking up without that now.


	6. Nightmares

_Naruto's P.O.V_

_I can feel his hand tightly gripping me around my throat. He's holding me up so my feet dangled a few inches above the water below us. I felt his grip around my throat get tighter and it was getting harder for me to breath. I was too exhausted and my whole body was in pain. I couldn't even move to struggle against him. _

_I hear him say something to me just before I feel a sharp pain in my chest. He lets me go and I'm slowly being surrounded by water. Slowly falling into the darkness, my consciousness fading away._

_Why was he doing this like me? Why did he hate me so much? _

_My thoughts got cloudy, the darkness was slowly closing in on me, and I was running out of air. I was dying and it was all by his hand. I couldn't hold my breathe any longer and let it out, bubbles slolw rising making their way to the surface._

I woke up with a start, quickly sitting up in bed. My heart pounded in my chest, sweat beaded down my forehead, and I was gasping for air. I couldn't breathe, why couldn't I breathe?

My hands clawed at the collar of my shirt as I desperately tried to get air, but turned out to be of no help. My eyes darted around, taking in my surroundings and I soon realized that I was still in the hospital. That he was nowhere here, that I was safe from him.

My heart beat slowed a bit as I realized that I was still in the hospital, it was all just a dream just like all those other times. I took in a huge gasp of air and was now taking deep breaths trying to calm myself down.

I heard a barking and my attention was turned to Akamaru who was laying at the foot of my bed. He was whining and I knew he saw what happened and was now worrying about me. _"Are you okay?"_ He asked.

"Yeah, don't worry I was just having a bad dream." I said.

"_What was it about?"_

"I don't really want to talk about it." I didn't want to tell him that I had a dream about Sasuke, that I had a dream of him killing me.

I looked down at my lap. The image of Sasuke stabbing me in the chest with his Chidori is still fresh in my mind. The pain felt so real, but then again it always did.

Akamaru whined again and I figured it was because he could sense that something was wrong.

"Where's Kiba?" I asked looking up. I wanted to change the topic.

"_I don't know, he hasn't come back yet. The last time I saw him, was when he left after we brought you back to the hospital."_

_Oh great, now I've gone and pissed him off. _I thought to myself. _Maybe he's going to change his mind about watching over me now, but why is he the one getting all emotional over this? If anyone has the right to be angry it should be me after all the things everyone in this village has put me through._

"_Naruto,"_ Akamaru said, bringing me out of my thoughts. _", can I ask you something?"_

"You can ask, but I'm not going to guarantee that I'm going to give you an answer." I didn't mean to sound so mean, but it just came out that way.

"_How can you understand me?" _He asked.

"Well, it's an ability that nine tails gives me. I found out about it not too long ago, but this is the first time that I've actually gotten to use it."

"_Can you only talk to me or can you talk to other animals too?" _

"I don't know I only tried it with dogs.

Just then, the door opened and in walked Tsunade. "Naruto, good to see that you're up." She said closing the door behind her.

"Good to see you too grandma." I said. She hated when I called her that, because she didn't like to feel old, and that's the main reason why I called her that. Because she hated it and I loved to annoy her and judging by the look on her face it was working.

As I expected, she narrowed her eyes at me, but at the same time I could see the faint trace of a smile on her face. "Right, I'll let that slide this time." She said making her way to my bedside. "I was just speaking to Kiba and he's told me you're able to walk again and insists that you move in with him today. He'll be here sometime today to help you move your things."

"You know," Tsunade continued. ", you're lucky to have a friend like him. He really cares about you, even if it's not the same way that you care about him"

I felt my eyes widen to double their sizes. "You know?!" I asked completely surprised. Great, my day was already starting off like shit. How did she find out that I liked Kiba? Did he tell her what I wrote in the letter?

Tsunade smiled. "Don't worry, Kiba didn't tell me, but I did read the letter you wrote to him. And I know what the villagers and Sasuke have put you through. I don't know why you never went to any of your friends when all of this was happening or even come to me or Shizune. But I know it's a touchy subject for you so I'm not going to question you about it. You'll talk whenever you're ready to, but please promise me you'll come to me or Kiba before you decide to do something too rash."

"Okay, I promise." I said giving her a small smile.

She smiled back seeing that I agreed to come to her before doing anything rash and by 'rash' I knew she meant try and kill myself again. But little did she know that I was only saying that in hopes that she would drop the subject.

I think Akamaru knew that I was lying because right after I said that, he started whining at the foot of my bed. _At least someone here is smart enough to tell when I'm lying; I'm just surprised that it was the dog._

The door to my room opened again and this time it was Kiba who walked in.

"Oh Kiba, I was just telling Naruto that he'd be moving in with you today." Tsunade said.

"I was kind of hoping I'd be the one to tell him, but oh well." Kiba said with a smile on his face. He turned his gaze in my direction and I instantly looked away to try and avoid his gaze.

"I'll leave you two alone. Naruto, I'll be checking up on you from time to time on the Inuzuka Estate." Tsunade said before walking out of the room.

Kiba made his way to the foot of my bed and pet Akamaru who wagged his tail at his master's presence. "How are you feeling?" Kiba asked. His voice came out soft, caring even, unlike yesterday when he was yelling at me.

I didn't answer him, just continued to sit there in silence, staring down into my lap.

"You're going to have to talk to me sooner or later. You're moving in with me today and you just can't keep acting like I don't exist when we're living in the same house."

I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was getting angry, but still I said nothing.

Kiba sighed. "Akamaru, you can go home now if you want, I'll watch over him for now." Kiba offered but Akamaru declined it and said he would stay.

I lay back in bed and turned on my side facing away from him. I don't know why I'm giving Kiba such a hard time. I guess I was just mad and was taking it out on him, but Kiba, of all people, didn't deserve it.

_Kiba's P.O.V_

Naruto is really doing his best to try and ignore me and I don't know why. Maybe it was something I did, but I wouldn't know what it was unless he talked to me, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen anytime soon.

I let out a sigh, I seem to be doing that a lot lately, and sat down in the chair beside his bed.

_Maybe we both would have been better off if I never offered to watch him and he were watched over by an Anbu. _I thought to myself, but instantly took it back knowing how miserable that would have made Naruto. Plus, it was too late for me to take back my offer.

"When am I going to move my stuff into your place?" Naruto asked,

I was a little surprised to hear his voice and it took me a while to realize he was talking to me. "Uh, we can do it whenever you want." I said.

"Let's go now." Naruto sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed opposite of me.

I watched as his hands went to the bottom of his shirt and he slowly lifted it up over his head, revealing the bandages that covered him below. He tossed his shirt to the side of the room and stood up to take off his pants. His hands went to the waist band of his pants when I realized that I was staring and quickly averted my eyes.

"I'll wait for you outside." I said getting up and walking out of the room. Akamaru got off the bed and followed me out.

"_What's wrong?"_ Akamaru asked once we were out of the room.

"It's nothing, I just wanted to give him some privacy that's all." I lied and I knew he didn't believe me for a second. He knew me too well to fall for a lie like that.

_Why was Naruto changing in front of me like that?_ I thought to myself. _Better yet, why was I staring at him? _

The door opened and Naruto came walking out of the room in his usual bright orange outfit. "Let's go." He said walking down the hall.

I staid quiet and just followed him out of the hospital with Akamaru at my side.

While we were walking to Naruto's apartment, I noticed that the villagers were giving us strange looks. The looks were mainly directed towards Naruto and they weren't nice ones either. They were all dirty looks, glares. Every one of the villager's smiling faces were turned into a look of disgust once their eyes made contact with Naruto.

The looks they gave me weren't anything as fierce as the ones they gave Naruto. They were a lot softer and looked more confused as if they didn't know why I was walking so close to him.

I looked over to Naruto. Despite all the dirty looks he was getting, he still walked as if everything were okay, as if he didn't even notice the people looking at him like they were. Maybe he was just used to it, but why hadn't I noticed any of this whenever I walked with him before? Naruto was right; I was too blunt to notice anything that happened to him.

We made it to Naruto's apartment and walked all the way to the top floor. Once he opened the door, I was surprised to see how messy his place was. Just by looking in through the front door, I could see a pile of empty ramen bowls scattered all over the place and a few random articles of clothing.

"_This place is a mess."_ Akamaru said.

"I know." I said. This was the first time I've been over to his house, but I never expected it to look like it did. How could he live like this?

Naruto came back not soon with a small backpack strapped on his back. "Okay, I'm ready."

"That's all you're going to bring? You know that you're going to be staying with me for a while right? It's not just a sleepover."

"Yeah, well I don't have a lot of stuff. I really only packed my ninja gear for when Tsunade starts letting me go back on missions."

"Okay, if that's all you think you'll need."

"Don't worry, I packed some ramen too. We both know I can't live without it." Naruto said and in that moment I saw a smile appear on his face.

It takes me a while to realize that he was joking and for a split second I think I'm getting the old Naruto back, but then the smile he was holding goes away and once again the happy, not a care in the world Naruto that I've known for so long, was now gone and replaced with an empty shell that only pretended to be happy and that everything was okay.

"We should go." Naruto said. He closed the door behind him and started walking down the stairs of his apartment.

I turned and quietly walked behind him.

As we walked to the Inuzuka Estate, the angry, disgusted stares from the villagers were becoming too much for me to handle and there were a couple instances where I had to stop myself from screaming out that the next person who gives us a dirty look would have to deal with me personally. I didn't know how Naruto could walk as if no one was giving us dirty looks.

I breathed a sigh once we walked through the gates of the Inuzuka Estate and away from the villagers.

"I'm used to it, the way they look at me." Naruto said. "It's only because you were walking with me that they didn't throw anything at me or yell that I should die."

I felt bad for Naruto. I thought it was bad enough having the villagers glare at him, but apparently that's not all they did to him.

The sound of growling caught my attention and I looked up to see Kuromaru and two other dogs slowly approaching until they were right in front of us. There was no doubt that their growls were directed at Naruto.

"What are you three doing?" I asked confused as to why they were acting like this.

"_A better question would be why did you bring him here? He reeks of fox. So much that we could smell him from the other side of the estate as soon as he crossed the gate."_ Kuromaru said.

"He's not going to hurt anyone-" I tried to explain, but Kuromaru cut me off.

"_And how do you know that?"_

"Because he's my friend and if he does cause problems then I'll take full responsibility. Besides, he's going to be living with me so I'll keep an eye on him at all times."

Once I said that all three of the ninja hounds seemed to be taken aback.

"_Does Tsume know you're trying to keep a pet fox?"_

_Oh crap! I was so caught up with everything that was going on that I completely forgot to tell her._

"He's not a pet. And no, I haven't gotten the chance to tell her yet."

"_I doubt she'll let him stay here once she finds out, but if she for some reason agrees with letting him stay you better keep your word of watching over him. If I even think he's up to something, I'll make sure I have the pleasure of ripping his throat out myself."_ He said and then walked away with the other two dogs following behind him.

"Oh great, even dogs want me dead." Naruto said.

"Don't listen to him. He's like that to everyone. And he's just mad because he lost his eye the day the Kyuubi attacked."

"Well that makes me feel better knowing that I'm being blamed for something that I didn't even do." Naruto said sarcastically. He started walking off and I could tell by the way he trudged when he walked that his mood was turned to shit because of what just happened.

_Naruto's P.O.V_

As we walked through the estate, I swear I saw at least two hundred dogs and I've only been here for three minutes. Now it really makes sense why everyone calls them dog lovers.

The people here looked so much like Kiba. Olive tone skin, animal like slit eyes, brunet hair, and they all had red upside-down fangs on their cheeks. And they all seemed to know Kiba because every time we passed by they would smile and wave at him. When they noticed me walking next to him, unlike the villagers, the smiles on their faces weren't replaced with a look of disgust.

"You seem to be very popular around here." I told him. I've yet to see one person who hasn't smiled and waved at him when we walked by.

"That's because I'm the heir to the clan. As soon as I'm old enough I'll be the one in charge and they'll have to listen to me." Kiba said with a huge grin.

"Lucky you, you sure have a lot to look forward to. So that means your dad is the leader now."

"That's what it would mean…if he were still here."

"What do you mean?"

"He died before I was born so I never even got to meet him. After his death the only one left to take charge was my mom."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Yeah I never talk about it with anyone, not even Hinata and Shino."

I could see Kiba's cheerful expression fade at the topic of his father. Now he was sad and I felt like shit for making him feel like that.

Finally, we made it to Kiba's house. "Welcome to my humble abode." He said as he opened the door.

I walked in and my eyes scanned the place taking in how clean and organized it was unlike my apartment. There were stairs that lead to the upper floor with several other rooms, a doorway that lead to the kitchen, and a long hall that lead to other rooms. This was so much better than my apartment.

"Come on, I'll show you your room." Kiba said.

We walked upstairs and my room was down the hall a little to the left. "Make yourself at home." He said as we walked into the room. The first thing I noticed was that the bed was covered in a bright orange sheet.

"I figured orange was your favorite color since you wear it all the time so I got that for you."

"Thanks." I said with a small smile. Maybe living here wasn't going to be as bad as I thought it was.

"Kiba Inuzuka, get your ass down here this instant!" Someone shouted from outside.

I turned to look at Kiba and saw that all the color had drained from his face. "Uh, you should go ahead and unpack your stuff. I'll be right back." Kiba said shakily before running downstairs and out the front door.

I took my bag off and threw it on the bed then walked to the window where I saw a woman who looked almost just like Kiba standing outside the window with her arms crossed. I saw Kiba run up to her and I figured that was his mom.

_Kiba's P.O.V_

"Kiba would you like to explain to me why I'm hearing that Naruto is moving onto the estate and you're the one housing him?" My mom asked.

Her glare was so intense I felt myself take a step back from her. I swear there were only two women in the entire world that I was scared of; Tsunade and my mom, and right now my mom didn't look to be too happy with me.

"It was an order from Lady Tsunade. I'm supposed to watch over him to make sure he's okay." I said. As I talked, I could hear that my voice came out shaky and uneven.

"He's old enough to take care of himself, why does the Hokage have my son babysitting him?"

"Because…" I trailed off. I didn't know how to explain it to her without telling her exactly what happened.

"Because what?"

"Because, he's going through some stuff and she's worried about him and doesn't want him doing anything stupid."

She gave me a look and I think she got what I was hinting at. "Okay, so why am I the last one to know that he's going to be living on the estate?"

"Well, I was so busy that it kind of slipped my mind. And he's not living here, he's only staying until he gets back on his feet."

"What about your missions? How are you supposed to complete them if you're busy watching over him?"

"Tsunade said that watching over him would be my only mission for now."

She eyed me for a good while and I could tell she was taking all this in. Tsume looked up passed me at the house. "Naruto, get down here!" My mom shouted startling me and making me jump slightly.

Naruto came walking out of the house not too long after and I could tell by the look on his face that he was nervous.

_Naruto' P.O.V_

"I don't know why Lady Tsunade said you can move onto the estate without talking to me first, but if you are going to be staying here just remember that as long as you're here you're going to have to abide my orders as leader of the Inuzuka Clan. Is that clear?" She firmly said to me.

Her gaze was hard. The way she looked at me, it was just like the villagers, like she didn't trust me, like she was just waiting for the nine tails inside me to come out. But unlike the villagers, she was actually intimidating, so much that the only thing I found myself able to do was hesitantly nod my head that I agreed.

She broke her gaze to Kiba. "I better not here anything of him causing trouble." She said to him before turning and walking off.

I let out a sigh feeling the pressure of her gaze be lifted off of me. "She seems friendly." I sarcastically said.

"I'm sorry about that. She can be sort of a bitch sometimes. Just don't tell her I told you that."

I couldn't help but smile a little at what he said. "That's okay, I'm used to it."

/

Time passed and I found myself sitting on the bed of my new room while Kiba took a shower. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the look Kiba's mom gave me out of my head. She was the only one here to look at me like all the villagers do.

Why does everyone hate me when I've done nothing to anyone? I felt adrenaline start to build up in me, my heart started beating faster and my by breaths came out short and jagged, and I knew I was on the verge of doing something that I was going to regret. Too bad I didn't feel like going to Tsunade with my problems.

I got off the bed and walked out of the room. I had to stop thinking about this and clear my head. I started walking towards the stairs, my head tilted downward looking at the ground, but I didn't get very far as I bumped into something. I looked up to see what it was that I walked into and I instantly regretted having ever left the room.

Kiba stood in front of me, a towel hanging dangerously low on his hips. Water dripped down his body and landed in a small puddle on the floor. His whole body was toned, his legs, arms, chest. He even had a six pack and I could see a trail of brown hair that started at his belly button and lead somewhere that was barely covered by his towel.

"Oh sorry." Kiba said bringing me back to reality.

I realized that I was staring and quickly looked to his face. He had a small goofy grin on his face and his hair was wet and lay damp on his head. He lifted his hand to push his hair back out of his face.

My heart was beating so fast in my chest again, but this time it was because the guy who I had a crush on for as long as I could remember was practically naked and so close to me that I was sure he could hear the pounding of my heart. Why did he have to be so cute?

No, I wasn't supposed to be thinking about him like that. I'm supposed to be trying to get over him, but being this close wasn't making that any easier.

"Are you okay?" Kiba asked, but I didn't answer. Instead, I pushed passed him and ran down stairs.

I had to get away from him.

_Kiba's P.O.V_

"Naruto?" I said as Naruto pushed passed me and ran downstairs, but didn't get a response. "Man, what's wrong with him?" I said to myself.

"_Really Kiba?"_ Akamaru said coming up beside me.

"What, I just walked into him by accident, said sorry, and he just ran off for no reason."

"_Seriously, look at yourself. You know he likes you and you talk to him like it's nothing while you wear nothing but a towel."_

I looked down at myself and realized that Akamaru was right. How could I have forgotten something like that?

I walked to my room and put some clothes on. I hope I didn't make Naruto feel any worse by doing that.

/

"Man Akamaru, the first day he's been here and already things have turned shitty." I said. I had stripped down to my boxers and was now sitting on my bed with Akamaru next to me.

After the incident, I tried to talk to Naruto. I was at least hoping for a small comment like he's been doing lately, but he didn't respond and pretended like I wasn't there. The only time he did talk was to tell me that he was going to bed and I knew that I had fucked things up.

"_Well maybe tomorrow will be better, just be careful not to accidentally flirt with him again."_ Akamaru said. _"Oh, and he told me how he was able to understand me the other day. He said it's something the nine tails lets him do."_

"Really, why hasn't he told anyone about it?"

"_He said he just found out about it a while ago."_

"Why does he talk to you and not to me?" I asked noticing how Naruto has explained more to Naruto than he has to me.

"_I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm easier to talk to."_

"Well I guess, considering you're a dog and all and the only ones who can understand you are the Inuzukas, but-" I was cut off mid-sentence by a loud scream.

"_What was that?"_ Akamaru asked.

"It sounded like it Naruto." I said getting off the bed and running out of the room to Naruto's.

When I opened the door, I saw him thrashing around in bed. His face held a pained expression and his arms were flailing about. He let out another scream, this one almost loud enough to set every dog off on the estate. From what I could tell he was having a nightmare and a really bad one at that.

I ran over to his bed side and held his arms down by his wrist, but even with his hands pinned down, he still thrashed around and struggled against my grip.

"Naruto, wake up!" I shouted, but it was to no avail. The pained look on his face got even worse and I didn't know what to do.

"Naruto, wake up." I said again, this time shaking him by the shoulders.

I think that did it because he slowly stopped struggling against my grip and the pained expression on his face slowly started to fade. Finally, his eyes twitched until they slowly fluttered open revealing his big ocean blue eyes, but they were full of so much pain and agony, even more than when we were in the hospital.

"Are you okay?" I asked. I let go of his wrist and back away a little. I saw him look at me then quickly look away and I knew it was a stupid idea to come in here while I was in my boxers, but what I dind't exactly have time to get dressed.

"Yeah, it was just a bad dream." Naruto said. His voice came out low and without any energy.

"Well are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I get them all the time. Sorry if I scared you." Naruto rolled on his side so that he faced away from me.

I stared at him for a good while. He gets those kinds of dreams that often? I sighed and turned to walk out of the room, but turned back just in time to see Akamaru making himself comfortable on the floor beside Naruto's bed. I turned back around and walked out of the room closing the door behind me.

There's something that Naruto's not telling me.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**So what do you guys think Naruto's dream at the end was about? Hope you enjoyed this chapter. :)


	7. Silence Is Golden

_Naruto's P.O.V_

After Kiba woke me up last night, it took me a while before I finally fell back asleep. Funny thing is I wasn't even trying to go back to sleep. I knew that if I did that he would be in my dreams again; he always is. Every night it's the same dream over and over again. I'm back at the Valley of the End with Sasuke. He's gripping me by my throat only moments away from killing me. Each time the pain feels so real and is even worse than it was before.

I tried doing everything I could to stay up so I wouldn't have to relive the pain again, but despite my efforts I still fell asleep. But strangely I wasn't in the Valley of the End about to be killed by Sasuke. In fact, I didn't dream at all.

For the first time in a long time I slept peacefully. Well at least that was until I felt something wet on the side of my face followed by a horrible smell that instantly woke me up. I turned my head to try and get away from him but that didn't stop him. He was relentless, but still I couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay Akamaru, I'm up." I say through my laughter.

He continued to lick at my face a little longer then finally stopped.

"Jeez haven't you heard of a breath mint?" I jokingly ask, wiping his saliva off my face. "What was that for anyway, I was hoping to sleep in today."

"_Sorry, but Kiba made breakfast and he told me to wake you up." _Akamaru said and that's when I smelled it, the eggs, the bacon, the pancakes, then immediately came the loud growling of my stomach. _"I wouldn't get too excited if I were you." _Akamaru said. I guess he said that because he saw the excited look on my face, but I had no idea what he meant by that's and I didn't care either. I just wanted to eat.

I got out of bed and walked downstairs. When I got to the kitchen, I saw Kiba at the stove, actually wearing clothes this time unlike last night, with two plates next to him on the counter with food. One was a pile of good food and the other was a pile of everything else that was burnt. Let's just say that the burnt pile was a lot bigger than the good one. Looking at it again I think some of the food in the 'good' pile might be undercooked.

"Oh hey, you're up." Kiba said when he turned from the stove and noticed me standing in the doorway.

"Yeah well Akamaru did a good job of that." I said taking a seat at the table. "Wow, I never knew you could cook so well." I say sarcastically as Kiba added more things to the burnt pile. At least now I know why Akamaru told me not to get too excited.

Kiba let out a shy chuckle. "Sorry, this is the first time I've cooked before. I usually just go over to my mom's house for breakfast, but since you were here I thought I'd cook for you, but as you can see, it turned out not to be as easy as I thought it was." Kiba scratched the back of his head and I swear I could see the faint trace of a blush that made him look even cuter than he already was if that was even possible.

I couldn't help but smile at him, and then came a sharp pain in my arm. I looked down to see that I was subconsciously digging my nails into my arm and my smile faded as quickly as it came as I realized that I wasn't supposed to be thinking about him like that. I let go of my arm and put both of them under the table. I looked back up to see that Kiba was occupied dealing with more food that was burning. At least he didn't see me doing that.

"Well if you're done burning all your food, I brought ramen with me from home if you want some and I don't think there's any possible way that you can burn that, but considering your luck with cooking I think you'll find a way to."

"Hey, I don't burn everything." Kiba argued.

"But you sure don't know how to cook. So what is it going to be?"

"Alright fine, I'll take the ramen. That sounds good right about now anyway."

I stood from the table and went upstairs to get my bag. All the while I was beating myself up in my mind for not being able to control the way I feel about him. I had to find a way to get over him and fast. There was no point in liking someone that was never going to feel the same way about you.

"This is way better than a burnt breakfast." Kiba said as we ate the ramen and that was the only thing said by us. I didn't notice how quiet it was mainly because I was so engrossed with my ramen, but when I finished, I noticed the silence that had fallen between us. I also noticed that Kiba wasn't eating either.

I looked up from my bowl of ramen to see that his attention was turned somewhere else. He was staring at me, well my arms to be specific.

His gaze was so intense that I could practically feel his eyes on my arms. I was feeling so uncomfortable right now that I instinctively moved my arms underneath the table so they were out of his sight.

"Why did you do that to yourself?" Kiba asked. His voice came out sounding worried which only made me feel like crap knowing that he was worrying about me.

Instead of answering him, I looked down, anywhere to try and avoid making eye contact with him.

"Naruto, come on, you can't just keep ignoring me every time I ask you question about what happened." Kiba said. I could tell by his voice that he was getting frustrated, but I still staid quiet.

I didn't want to talk about it. Even Tsunade said that she wouldn't make me talk about it until I was ready to. Why was he so stuck on getting me to talk?

"Okay, I've had enough of this shit!" Kiba said angrily standing up from his chair and slamming his hands down on the table.

I jumped at the intensity of his voice. I looked up at him and could see the anger clearly shown on his face as he glared and bared his teeth at me.

"I'm doing the best I can to keep you happy!" Kiba said. "I stayed with you while you were at the hospital, I risked my life to save you, I came after you when you ran away from the hospital, I even offered for you to come live with me, which obviously shows that I care about you. The least that you can do is stop acting like a spoiled brat and talk to me." Kiba's chest was heaving up and down from his outburst.

"I never asked to be saved. I never asked for any of this." I said under my breath, but I knew Kiba heard me clearly.

"You know what, I should've just let Tsunade put an anbu in charge of watching over you. Then you'd be someone else's responsibility and I won't have to give a shit about you anymore."

I looked up at him, my face holding a look of shock and hurt. _Was I really causing Kiba this much trouble? _I thought to myself and I got my answer once I looked Kiba in the eyes and saw that he held only pure anger towards me and for that split moment I think of the villagers and how they all look at me the same way Kiba was right now.

I couldn't take it. I pushed away from the table and ran upstairs to my room.

_Kiba's P.O.V_

Naruto ran out the kitchen and not long after did I hear the slamming of the door upstairs.

Just then, I felt a sharp pain in my leg

"Ow! Akamaru, what the hell is wrong with you?" I shouted rubbing the spot on my leg where he bit me.

"_What's wrong with me, what's wrong with you?! Why would you say that to him?"_

"Because I' doing nothing but trying to help him and he still won't even talk to me unless he feels like it."

"_So what, that's exactly the point. You can't force him to talk. You have to let him talk when he's ready. And you can't ask him questions about his arms like that. If he wants you to know he'd tell you. Even you wouldn't be so open about your personal life." _Akamaru said and I started to feel like shit for the way I acted towards Naruto. _"This is why he only talks to me, because I'm not trying to dig into his life."_

"I'm sorry, it's just that I get so mad when he doesn't talk to me."

"_I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. You should go talk to Naruto before he does something we'll all regret."_

I sighed knowing that Akamaru was right. I walked out of the kitchen and upstairs to Naruto's room. "Naruto?" I say knocking on the door. He didn't respond but that didn't come as a surprise to me.

I slowly opened the door and saw Naruto sitting on the bed with his knees folded up to his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs and he rested his chin on his knees.

I walked over and sat down beside him on the bed. "Naruto, look I'm sorry." I said. I lifted hand and attempting to place it on his shoulder to comfort him, but he flinched at my touch and I put my hand down regretting ever doing that.

"I didn't mean any of those things I said downstairs. It's just that I care about you and it angers me when I'm doing all I can for you and you won't even trust me enough to tell me anything."

A moment of silence fell between us. It didn't seem like Naruto was going to talk to me so I thought I might as well leave him alone. "I understand that you probably don't want to talk to me right now, so I'll leave you alone."

I was about to stand up from the bed when Naruto muttered something. "It helps to clear my head." He said.

"What?" I asked confused by what he meant.

"My arms, I do that to myself because it helps me clear my head and calm me down." Naruto explained. "I started doing it because I couldn't take the villager's crap anymore and the pain gets my mind off of all of that. At first the pain was enough to keep the bad thoughts I was having away, but eventually the pain wasn't enough to keep the thoughts at bay and you know what happened next."

"When did you start doing it?"

"A while after we got back from the Sasuke retrieval mission."

"Naruto, does Sasuke have something to do with all of this?" I ask. I remember him saying something in the letter about how Sasuke ran from the village because he told him he liked him.

Naruto didn't answer me. In fact, he seemed to have gotten even worse. Then I remembered what Akamaru said about not trying to dig into his personal life. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, I just don't feel like talking about it. At least not now."

"Well whatever it was he did, you didn't deserve it. You don't deserve any of the shit everyone gives you."

"Thanks, and I'm sorry about giving you such a hard time."

"No, you were never giving me a hard time. I only said that because I was frustrated. This is the first time I've ever had to deal with something like this."

"Well that figures. If you want, I can go to Tsunade and ask her if I could be watched over by an Anbu instead. That way you could go back to having a normal life and you won't have to worry about me anymore."

"No, don't do that. I know how miserable that would make you. And besides, I kind of want you to stay."

"Really?" Naruto asked. He looked up at me, his face holding a shocked expression.

"Yeah of course I do." I say smiling at him.

_Naruto's P.O.V_

I felt butterflies in my stomach after hearing him say that he wanted me to stay. I could tell that I had a big goofy grin on my face. In that moment, I thought back to what Kyuubi said about how there was still a chance that Kiba could still be gay. The he could still like me.

"You're my friend, why wouldn't I want you to stay. I'm supposed to help a friend in need right?" Kiba said and like that my hopes of him actually liking me were crushed to pieces and I felt like the butterflies in my stomach were now all on fire dying slowly. The goofy smile I had on my face was instantly replaced with a frown, but I put on a fake smile to try not to make it obvious how I was feeling. All of this happening all because I got my hopes up when Kiba only thinks of me as a friend.

"So, we have the whole day to do whatever our hearts desire. Anything in particular you want to do? Since we can't go on missions yet, how about we go train a little bit?"

"No, I think I'd rather sleep in today. I didn't get much sleep last night because of the nightmare and Akamaru woke me up before I could get enough sleep." I said. I stretched trying give off the look that I was tired.

Training didn't sound like a bad idea right now. It could help me get my mind off things, but I didn't want to be with Kiba, I _couldn't _be with him right now. I just wanted to be alone.

"Oh." Kiba said sounding a little disappointed. "Okay, no problem. Looks like I have to find something else to do now." It might have just been me but it seemed like he was putting on a fake smile.

_Looks like I'm not the only one who wears a mask around here. _I thought to myself.

"But how about we train after I wake up? That way I'll be rested and can kick your ass even easier."

"Ha, I'd like to see you try," Kiba said with a smug grin on his face.

"Right, and who won at the Chunin exams, me or you? I forgot." Now it as my turn to have a smug grin on my face.

"Whatever, that was only out of luck. If I didn't have such a strong nose then I definitely would have beaten you."

"Alright, fine then let's have a rematch and see who really should have won at the Chunin exams and a little warning, I got a lot stronger since I was a genine."

"You're on, and don't think you're the only one who's gotten stronger."

"Fine, but after I sleep." I said climbing under the covers.

"Okay, have fun dreaming about me kicking your ass." Kiba said. He got up off the bed and walked out of the room closing the door behind him.

I waited a few minutes until I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore and got up out of bed to my bag in the corner of the room. I dug through it pushing aside ramen and the few articles of clothing I had until I found the kunai I had placed at the bottom of my bag. I pulled it out and turned it in my hand watching as the light gleamed off of it. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to use it while I was here, but apparently I'm a lot weaker than I thought I was.

I walked back to the bed and sat down starring at the kunai in my hand. I knew that I was going to regret it but the urge was just too great to ignore. I had no one but myself to blame for this. I let myself continue to fall for Kiba when he just thinks of me as a friend. It's better that I get over him now before it's too late and the fastest way for me to do that would be to force myself to stop liking him.

I turned my arm over and stared down at it. I haven't done this in a while so most of my cuts have healed leaving only small scars in their place. I take the kunai and push the tip down on my arm so that it dug into the skin.

I take a deep breath remembering the time I first did this. The first time I cut to forget Sasuke, to forget the villagers and the urge to cut becomes even greater.

My thoughts switch to Kiba. I think of the way you can always see his fangs whenever he smiles, I think about the way his skin radiates whenever the sun hits it, the way he can make me turn to mush just by looking at me. I think about how much I like him and how badly I wish he could feel the same way towards me and I cut those thoughts out. I drag the kunai across my arm wincing as I felt it cut through my skin.

I lifted the kunai off my arm and starred down at my arm as blood started coming up from the cut. Blood leaked over the side of my arm and fell on the floor before I saw the wound start to close thanks to Kyubbi's chakara.

I breathe a sigh having all the thoughts about Kiba leave my head. _Hopefully that'll help keep my thoughts at bay for a while. _I think to myself. Then I hear a knock at the door.

I freeze and feel my breath catch in my throat. I can't let Kiba see me like this.

_Kiba's P.O.V_

I open the door to Naruto's room and see him lying in bed with the covers over his head. He's not a good an actor as he might have thought he was.

"Naruto I know you're wake." I say, but he doesn't respond.

I was about to say something when the faint smell of blood caught my attention and that's when I caught a glimpse of a small red spot on the floor. _Now I know why I smell blood. _I thought to myself.

"Tsunade came by to check up on you but I told her you were sleeping so she's going to come back a little later." I say, but still I get no response. "Naruto, I'm always here if you ever need to talk about anything and so is Tsunade." I say trying to reassure him. Silence is all I'm met with and despite how mad it makes me that Naruto won't even talk to me I turn and walk out the room leaving him to himself.


	8. Digressing

_Naruto's P.O.V_

When Kiba left the room, I didn't move from under the covers. I was mentally beating myself up for being so careless. For not being able to hide this when I was able to for years. And most of all for not being able to control myself; to control my emotions.

For a moment I thought maybe he didn't notice what I did, that it was just my imagination that made me think he did, but then his words rang in my head, 'Naruto, I'm always here if you ever need to talk about anything and so is Tsunade.'

I felt a pain in my stomach as my paranoia got worse. There was no way he would say that unless he knew what I did only moments before he walked in.

At least he didn't make such a big deal out of this and try to make me talk, but him being a little more understanding about this didn't make things any better. It only made me feel worse knowing that he was worrying about me.

I let out a sigh, moving the covers off my head and stare up at the ceiling. How could I face Kiba now that he knows what I did? The next time I see him I know he's going to look at me with eyes full of judgment and disappointment. That's all I'm ever good for; disappointment. Just the thought of me having disappointed Kiba is enough to make me want to cut again, but I know I can't. That's what got me in this position in the first place.

I knew sooner or later I was going to have to stop cutting. Eventually Tsunade or Kiba will decide that it's time for me to stop, but I don't think I'm ready to stop completely. It's the only way I know how to cope with all the pain and they don't understand that it's the only thing that's kept me alive for this long. Without it I don't know how I'll handle the villagers, how I'll handle the dreams with Sasuke, or even how I'll keep my feelings for Kiba at bay.

I turned on my side. I wanted to forget this, forget everything that's happened to me today. Me telling Kiba that I never wanted to be saved; me cutting and practically getting caught by Kiba. It was way too early for all of this. All I wanted right now was to sleep. The day had barely started and already I was exhausted.

I closed my eyes wanting to escape this world that hates me so much; wishing to be swept away in my dreams. But that wish was immediately regretted as I was met with _him _again. His hand around me tightly gripping my throat chocking me. I felt my eyes roll in the back of my head as I ran out of air.

The last thing that went through my mind before I lost consciousness was _why? _

When is this nightmare going to end?

I woke up a while later. Even though I probably slept for more than an hour, I still felt exhausted. My eye lids felt heavy and my entire body was numb. As much as I wanted to just go back to sleep I knew I couldn't just sleep the day away. Especially because Kiba would think that there was something wrong and worry about me more. Besides, I'd only end up seeing _him _again if I did go back to sleep.

My body was so exhausted, I had to literally force myself out of bed and walk to the door. I dragged my feet on the floor and my body was slumped over as I walked to the door. If anyone were to see me now they'd say I looked like the walking dead.

I walked out of the room and heard a noise coming from what sounded like the kitchen and figured it was Kiba. I just hoped he wasn't trying to cook again. I started making my way downstairs. I begged to everything that Kiba wouldn't bring the incident up. I didn't feel like talking right now especially not about that.

I reached the bottom step and heard Kiba's voice coming from the kitchen. "No Akamaru, I'm not going to do that!" Kiba said angrily. I jumped at the intensity of his voice even though his anger wasn't directed at me.

"_But you have to tell her!" _I hear Akamaru say back. _"She needs to know that something like this is going on." _

By now I was slowly inching towards the kitchen until I reached the doorway. _What are they talking about? _I thought to myself. I peek my head out so I could see in the kitchen. Kiba sat at the side of the table with Akamaru on the opposite side.

"No it's better if we keep this whole thing just between us. As far as I know it's helpful."

I still had no idea what they were talking about. I decided to stick my head out a little more so I could get a better view of them. They were too caught up in the argument that neither of them noticed me standing there.

"_Helpful?! How the hell is that helpful? It's just a sign that things are getting worse."_

"Akamaru, you don't understand. Naruto told me that cutting helped him get his mind off of wanting to kill himself."

So that's what they were talking about; me cutting. And I'm guessing they were arguing about whether or not to tell Tsunade.

I slowly backed out of the doorway and snuck back upstairs. Once I was at the top step, I went back down this time practically stomping on the stairs to make sure they would hear me and just like I thought, I heard Kiba shush Akamaru. I walked back into the kitchen and was greeted by Kiba as he turned around in his chair holding a smile that I knew, without a doubt, was fake.

"Hey look who's up for the second time today, or died and came back as a zombie." Kiba says and I figured it was because he noticed how exhausted I looked.

"Well considering how loud you two were arguing you probably could wake the dead." I tell him.

I could see a slight look of worry on his face. Worry that I heard what their conversation was about. Little did he know, I heard everything they said.

"Yeah sorry about that, but since you're up, you ready for our rematch?"

"Well that's kind of the reason why I came down here." I lied, I had completely forgotten about that. "Sorry, but I don't feel much like fighting you now. Can we do it some other time? I promise that I won't cancel."

"Just admit that you're scared that I'll beat you. Don't worry, I promise to take it easy on you if you admit it."

"Yeah okay." I said rolling my eyes at him.

"I'm just joking; you don't look like you're up for it anyway. We can do it anytime you feel like it. Or we could just put the whole thing behind us."

"Thanks." I say putting on a weak smile.

I was about to turn and leave the kitchen when Kiba asked, "Naruto, you would tell me if something was wrong right? You know, like if you were thinking of suicide." his voice sounded worried.

"Yeah of course." I say, but I don't think I even believed myself when I said that.

I turn and walk out of the kitchen and make my way up the stairs. I hear the scratching of Akamaru's nails on the floor as he followed behind me.

Once I got to the room, I sat on the bed and Akamaru came up and lay beside me putting his head in my lap.

"What were you and Kiba arguing about?" I ask Akamaru, placing my hand on his head. Even though I already know the answer to that, I still wanted to hear him say it.

"It was nothing, just something stupid." He said dismissively.

"It sure didn't sound like it was nothing."

"You shouldn't worry about it, believe it or not, me and Kiba argue a lot like that and over stupid things too." He said. And just like that the conversation was ended.

I should've known that I wasn't going to get anything out of him, but it didn't hurt to try.

_Next Day: Kiba's P.O.V_

After Naruto came downstairs yesterday, I haven't seen him for the rest of the day. He just staid locked up in his room with Akamaru.

Now it was late in the next morning and I was sitting at the kitchen table still without any signs of him.

I remember what Akamaru said after I told him what happened when I went to go check up on Naruto when he was 'sleeping'. He said that we needed to tell Tsunade he's doing that to himself, but what if she changes her mind about me watching over him? What if she makes an anbu watch over him instead? I doubt Naruto will be too happy with that and I tried explaining that to Akamaru, but he just wouldn't listen.

I knew I should've kept my mouth shut about what I saw. If I had then none of this would be happening.

_But I didn't actually see anything so how do I know what really happened? _I thought to myself wanting to give Naruto the benefit of the doubt, but I knew I smelled blood when I walked in the room and I even saw it on the floor so what other explanation is there for that?

Now it's well into the day and Naruto still isn't up yet and I don't know why. And come to speak of it, Akamaru hasn't come down yet either.

I stood up from the table and started making my way upstairs to his room. "Naruto." I say knocking on the door. I didn't get a response and I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach. I opened the door and when I did I saw Akamaru sprawled out on the bed completely knocked out. The only problem was he was the only thing that I saw; Naruto was nowhere to be seen. The uneasy feeling I had in my stomach only worsened as that fact slowly sunk in.

"Akamaru!" I shouted and said dog jumped awake, sitting up in bed, from the intensity of my voice. To be honest, I was even a little surprised by how intense my voice sounded. "Where is Naruto?" I asked. I did my best to hold back my anger and not jump to conclusions but I was failing miserably at that.

"What do you mean 'where is Naruto'?" Akamaru said. "Isn't he with you?"

"If he was with me, why would I be asking you where he is?!"

"I-I don't know I was sleeping the whole time, I didn't even notice he left."

'Dammit!" I shouted. I felt the anger I was holding back lowly start to build up, but even worse I felt panic rise up in me. Naruto was gone and I had no idea where he was.

I walked out of the room and could hear as Akamaru tried to keep up with me.

"_You see, this is why we should've told Tsunade what happened. Now he's gone and we have no idea where he went."_

I reached the bottom of the stairs and turned around glaring down at him. _Was he really trying to blame me for this? _"If you were so worried about this happening, don't you think you should've been keeping a close eye on him instead of sleeping?!"

"_Well maybe if you listened to me in the first place then there would have been more people watching over him instead of just me."_ We glared at each other, neither of us wanting to give in nor admit that we were wrong.

There was a loud thump on the roof causing both of us to stop our bickering and look up. We exchanged glances with each other before running back upstairs.

I practically burst down the door to Naruto's room and without a doubt there he was. He was standing there looking at me with a surprised look on his face because I just barged into the room.

I wanted so badly to scream, to ask him where he went, but I knew I couldn't, not feeling as angry as I was now.

"Kiba, what the hell was that about?" Naruto asked.

Before speaking I made sure to take a deep breathe to calm my nerves.

"Where were you?" I ask disregarding his question. Despite my efforts there was still a hint of anger in my voice.

Naruto looked at me for a moment and I could tell he knew something was up. "I had to get some air and I didn't want to wake you up." He said.

I took another deep breathe. I couldn't blame him, he's been locked up in the hospital and then in here for the past week. "Listen, if you want to go out you have to first let me know and second I have to go with you."

"Why, last time I checked I wasn't your kid so why do I have to tell you anything? And why do you need to chaperon me around?"

I opened my mouth but no words came out. How was I supposed to explain to him that he was on suicide watch which meant I had to always keep an eye on him?

"Oh I get it, you're scared that I'm going to kill myself." Naruto says as if he read my mind. "Well here's a news flash for you," He continued. ", whether you're with me or not if I wanted to kill myself I could do it and there's nothing you could do to stop me."

I was a little taken aback by this and I'm sure my facial expression showed how shocked I was. "Naruto, you're on suicide watch, which means I have to watch over you and make sure you're safe and I can't do that if I don't know where you are."

"I don't need you watching over me. Just admit you and Tsunade don't trust me. I mean, where were you to keep me safe _before _all of this happened? Where were you when I really needed you?"

"Okay you're right, I'm a shitty friend. I was never there when you needed me, I didn't bother to pick up the signs that something was wrong when it was obvious, and yes I was almost too late to save you, but this is me trying to be a better friend. I'm trying to be here for you unlike before, but you're making that nearly impossible for me."

"I care about you a lot okay? More than you can even imagine." I continued. "I want to be a better friend than I was then and keep you safe. If I were to lose you I don't know what I'd do. So please just promise to let me know the next time you want to go out for some air."

"Alright, fine." Naruto says, his voice coming out defeated. I see his eyes shift downward. I just hope that he's telling the truth for once.

"If you want breakfast, I suggest you eat some more of your ramen, unless you'd like me to cook for you." I say trying to change the subject to something less touchy and it seemed like it worked as Naruto looked up with a small smile on his face.

"Thanks, but I think I'll stick to the ramen."

"Suit yourself." I say then turn and walk out of the room with Akamaru, closing the door behind me.

We walk down the hall to my room and I collapse face first on my bed. I hug my pillow close to me and close my eyes only wanting to sleep, but Akamaru came up and licked my face preventing that from happening.

"What is it boy?" I ask. I roll on my side to face him.

"_You told Naruto that you didn't like him right?" _Akamaru asked.

"Yeah, why?" I say giving him a quizzical look.

"_When you said that, were you sure that you didn't like him or were you just saying that?"_

"I already told you about that, I told him that I wasn't sure if I was gay or not. Why are you bringing this up?"

"_Kiba, I think you might have some feelings for him. I've seen the way you look at him and the way you reacted today and yesterday when you saw his arms. You said you care about him, but are you sure you don't care about him a little more than just as a friend?"_

"I don't know, I mean I might. I've never acted this way around someone before and it hurts me every time I see him sad or hurt, but how will I know for sure?"

"_Well the best way would be to try it and find out if you really like him."_

"You mean tell him I like him and go through all the motions until I figure out what I really feel about him?"

"_Well yeah, unless you can think of a better idea."_

"And what if I end up realizing that I don't like him? Just break it off with him? That'll break his heart and that's the last thing I want to do. And there's no doubt that'll only make things worse for him."

"_It's not good if you go on not knowing your true feelings."_

"And neither is using someone for your own personal gain. And I'm not even sure if I want to know if I'm gay. Just imagine how my mom would react if I were to tell her that."

"_But you're her son; she has to accept you for who you are."_

"Yeah, remember who we're talking about." I say and put an end to the conversation.

_Naruto's P.O.V_

Kiba left the room closing the door behind him. I sat down on the bed feeling as the guilt washed over me. Had I really made Kiba worry that much just because he didn't know where I was?

**He really cares about you. **I hear Kyuubi say and before I realize it, I was standing in ankle deep water and standing in front of him. **He even said it himself.**

"Kyuubi, please don't start this again." I begged. I already knew where he was going with this.

**Naruto, you can't hide your feelings for him forever. I know how much you want this to just be a crush that you can get over if you try hard enough, but trust me this isn't something you can just get over. You have legitimate feelings for him and I can guarantee that he shares the same feelings for you too. He never said that he wasn't gay or that he would never like you. I'm telling you all you have to do is try and get closer to him instead of pushing him away like you keep doing now.**

"And what get shot down and my heart broken when he thinks of me as nothing more than just a friend?"

**OR you could find a real relationship with someone that really cares about you. You have to at least try to make it work.**

A moment of silence fell between us. I hated when he did this and I wasn't going to let him put stupid fantasies in my head.

"Kyuubi…" I started off "I have no idea what you're talking about. I have no attraction towards Kiba and there's no way that he feels anything towards me besides friendship so I don't know why you keep bringing up the topic."

**Naruto-**

"Bye Kyuubi" I say cutting him off and bringing myself back to the real world. I looked around the room and realized that I was still stuck here. Trapped in the home of my crush. As much as I wanted to deny it, I knew that Kyuubi was right. I wasn't going to get over him no matter how hard I tried.

I hated my life. Why did I have to fall in love with someone I couldn't have? I felt tears start to buildup in my eyes from all the frustration, but I wasn't going to cry. Not over something as stupid as this. I bit down on my lip to try and keep the tears at bay, but was failing.

I felt adrenaline building up in me, my heart beating faster, my breathing becoming more rapid, and my mind starting to race and become unclear. This was a feeling I knew all too well and I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to cut. I wanted to cut until I forgot everything. Cut until I forgot Kiba, forgot my attraction for him, the villagers, Sasuke. I just wanted all of this to end.


	9. Let Me In

_(Naruto's P.O.V)_

I hated my life. Why did I have to fall in love with someone I couldn't have? I felt tears start to buildup in my eyes from all the frustration, but I wasn't going to cry. Not over something as stupid as this. I bit down on my lip to try and keep the tears at bay, but was failing.

I felt adrenaline building up in me, my heart beating faster, my breathing becoming more rapid, and my mind starting to race and become unclear. This was a feeling I knew all too well and I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to cut. I wanted to cut until I forgot everything. Cut until I forgot Kiba, forgot my attraction for him, the villagers, Sasuke. I just wanted all of this to end.

The tears built up in my eyes so much that soon I felt them start to flow down my cheeks. I was falling apart and I needed to pull myself back together quickly before the pain became too great for me and I wouldn't be able to ignore cutting or even worse.

_I could easily get away with cutting. _I thought to myself. _There's nothing Kiba could do to stop me from doing anything and I even told him that. _Just thinking about how easy it would be to get away with it made the urge to cut even greater. Maybe I could even get away with something bigger and for what seemed like the hundredth time I was thinking about killing myself.

Instinctively I started digging my nails into my arm. I needed something to distract me from these thoughts before they got too bad and I didn't want to cut. Maybe it was the thought of me disappointing Kiba if I did that made me not want to it.

I tried focusing on the pain in my arm and not my thoughts. I needed the physical pain to distract me from everything else. That's why I always cut but the pain of me digging my nails in my arm wasn't anything compared to that, nowhere near as painful. So I dug my nails in even harder.

Even though it wasn't cutting it was still doing something. I slowly felt my breathing start to slow down back to normal, my heart wasn't beating as fast and coming back to its normal rhythm, and the thoughts I was having were slowly fading. They weren't gone completely but they definitely weren't as bad as they were before.

I let go of my arm to see the indents that were left on my skin. At least that was better than cutting.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks. I can't believe that I lost it like that. I hadn't even cried when Sasuke left.

Being trapped in this house was going to mess me up badly. I had to get out of here.

I stood up and walked to the window. I jumped onto the already open window and was about to leave when I remembered what Kiba said about telling him that I wanted to go out. For a moment I thought of just leaving. Who was he to say that I needed to tell him when I wanted to leave? He definitely was not my father. My father was long gone for all I knew.

But then I thought about the way he reacted when I left without telling him. He was really worried about me and seeing him like that made me feel like shit especially knowing that I was the one who caused him to get like that.

I jumped down from the windowsill and made my way to the door.

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

I lay on my bed staring up at the ceiling. Did I have feelings for Naruto? Akamaru had a point, I did act differently around him, but that didn't mean I liked him or maybe it did.

I know that I care about him a lot, but that's what friends do, they care for each other or were my feelings for him something more than just as a friend? To be honest I hoped I only liked him as a friend. Just the thought of how my mom would react to this sent chills down my spine.

"Kiba?" I hear Naruto's voice calling for me.

I got out of bed and walked out of the room to see Naruto halfway down the stairs.

"Yeah?" I say and Naruto stops walking and turns around in my direction. We make eye contact but Naruto quickly breaks it as he shifts his eyes downward like he couldn't stand to look at me.

"Kiba, I really need to get some fresh air right now." He says.

There's something about his tone and the way he wouldn't look at me that made me get an uneasy feeling in my stomach and that's not the only thing that gave me a bad feeling. In that split second that we made eye contact I could have sworn that his eyes looked slightly red and there were marks on his cheeks as if he were just crying.

"Uh, yeah sure no problem." I say and make my way to the stairs.

We walked out of the house and I closed the door behind us. "Anywhere specific you want to go?" I ask.

"Not really." Naruto says. His voice came out flat and he didn't even turn to look at me. Something was up with him but I wasn't sure if I should ask him or not.

"Well there's a forest not too far from here if you want to go there." I tell him.

"Yeah sure." He says plainly and I start leading the way through the Inuzuka compound to the forest.

It wasn't long until we entered the forest. Unfortunately, there was nothing but silence as we walked. Naruto didn't talk to me and I didn't try asking him if he was okay. I look over to him and see that he was dragging his feet and his head was tilted down toward the ground. It was obvious that he wasn't okay and I wanted so badly to ask. I wanted to be there for him, but I knew I couldn't ask. If he wanted to, he would tell me what the problem was. At least I hoped he would.

But what could've happened to make him like this? After I left his room it's been literally like ten minutes before he came out all depressed. _Wait, could it have been me getting mad at him for not telling me that he wanted to go out? I wasn't that hard on him was I?" _I think to myself.

I looked down to Akamaru and we exchanged worried looks. This might be worse than I thought.

We came across a small stream a little further down the forest. Naruto stopped walking and sat down in front of the stream with his knees folded up to his chest and his eyes down casted, focused on the flow of the water.

I sat down next to him and stared at the stream in front of us trying to figure out the right thing to say. Trying to figure out if I should even say anything in the first place, but the silence was eating at me and I wasn't sure if I could take it any longer, so I said the thing that I've said several times since the incident.

"Naruto, I'm here if you ever want to talk about anything." I say. I hear him let out a sigh.

"Yeah, I know." He says monotony.

Maybe I've said that more times than I thought I had.

"Well if you know then why don't you ever talk to me about anything?" I turn to look at him.

His eyes stay locked on the stream. "Because talking doesn't help, it'll only make me remember the things that I'm trying to forget."

"How would you know if you never tried it? You want to forget everything that's happened, but you just can't push all your emotions down or worse take out your emotions by hurting yourself. I know what you've been through and how it makes you feel but-"

"Stop." Naruto says in a sharp tone cutting me off mid-sentence. He finally turned to look at me. I stared into his eyes and saw a swirl of emotions, but out of all of them anger was the one most noticeable. "You have no idea how I feel and you definitely have no idea of the things I've been through so don't try and pretend like you can relate to me." He turned and looked back at the stream.

"Okay, you're right, I don't know anything about you, but why don't you help to change that? Talk to me and let me know more about you. Talk to me and you'll see that it's not as bad as you think it is." I lift my hand to place it on his shoulder but he jerked away from me just as my hand made contact with him.

"Please, just don't." He said and I pulled my hand away from him and turned to look in front of me.

Can I have one conversation with him where he doesn't end up getting angry at me?

Another moment of silence fell between us. The only sounds that could be heard were those of the rushing stream and birds as they chirped in the trees. Maybe it's better if I just keep my mouth shut, but I wanted him to open up to me; wanted him to know that I was always going to be here for him when he needed to talk.

I turn to look at him and see the way the sun shines off his already tanned skin. The way his hair moves in the wind. The way the water of the stream seems pale and colorless compared to his bright blue eyes. Maybe I was gay and maybe I did have some kind of feelings for him because right now, sitting right next to him, I felt butterflies in my stomach.

Naruto looked over and noticed me staring at him. "What are you looking at?" He said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Nothing." I say and turn back to look in front of me. Great now I got caught staring at him. Maybe if I just ask him it would help me get a sense of if I was or not.

"Naruto, can I ask you something?" I say getting his attention.

"What is it?"

"How did you know that you were gay?"

Naruto seemed to be a little surprised that I asked him that because I could see his eyes widen a little in the reflection in the water.

"Uh, well I found out a long time ago when we were still at the academy. I ended up accidentally kissing Sasuke one day and that's when I started having weird feelings. That's also the day I was unable to stop think about Sasuke and became obsessed with him like all the other girls. Why are you asking about that?" Naruto turned to me with a questioning look.

"Because…" I trailed off. Deep down I didn't want to admit what I thought, but I couldn't hide from the fact that there was still a possibility that I was. "Because, I think I might be." I finally said. "I mean I never thought about if I could be gay until you told me you liked me. Ever since that day, I couldn't stop wondering if I was. I've never kissed a girl before nonetheless thought of a future with one and I definitely never did any of that with a guy so I don't know my true feelings yet I guess."

"I just hate this so much." I continue. "On one hand I think I might be falling for you. I have strong feelings for you for sure, but on the other hand I don't know if I care for you as just a fried or something more."

Just then I felt Naruto place his hand on my knee. I looked up to see that he was leaning in close, so close that I could feel his breathe, smell the ramen that was on it. Feel the rapid beating of his heart in his chest as he moved in closer. He kept leaning in close until I felt his lips pressing against mine and the next thing I knew we were kissing.

I was too shocked to react. I just sat there with my eyes wide opened as he kissed me. It wasn't anything like I imagined it to be. It wasn't wild, passionate, or wet like I always thought my first kiss to be. But of all the things the last thing I expected was that I was going to have my first kiss with a boy, nonetheless Naruto.

Naruto pulled back and I could see a look of guilt and fear on his face. He sat back down and turned back to the stream. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, I don't know what came over me." Naruto said in a solemn tone.

I saw him about to get up and leave but I grabbed him by his hand before he could get up. "It's okay." I said reassuringly.

"No it's not!" Naruto turned around and shouted and I saw something that I never thought I'd see in a million years.

Tears built up in Naruto's eyes until they became too much and started to flow down his cheeks.

"Nothing is alright and it'll never be!" Naruto said. "You think you understand my pain, what I've been through, but you don't know anything about what it's like to grow up with no parents, with no one who loves you, while you watch everyone else go off and have a loving family. You don't know what it's like to be hated by everyone for being a Jinchuriki, something I had no say in. And you especially have no idea what it's like to always have to hide that you're different from everyone around you because if they knew it would give them more of a reason to hate you."

Watching Naruto break down like this made my heart ache. _I did tell him to open up and talk to me but I didn't think this would happen._

I wrapped my arms around Naruto and pulled him in close. He fought against me at first but he soon gave in and started crying on my chest. I felt so bad for him. I had no idea what to say to calm him down so I just sat there holding him while he cried into my chest. That was probably the best thing I could do right now.

As he cried, I thought about what happened a few moments ago; Naruto kissing me. From what I've heard if you really love someone then when you kiss them you're supposed to feel something magical, something that means you two will be together for the rest of your lives.

Why didn't I feel anything when Naruto kissed me? I was so sure that I had feelings for him, but the kiss didn't feel like anything special.

* * *

><p>It felt like an hour had passed before Naruto had finally finished crying. I looked down to see that he had cried himself to sleep. Tears streaked his cheeks and I gently wiped them away careful not to wake him up.<p>

"_At least he finally opened up to you a little bit."_ Akamaru said.

"Yeah," I say. "But I didn't want it to be like this." I run my fingers through his hair. _He's so peaceful when he' sleeping. _ I think to myself. Again I feel the butterflies in my stomach as if I were in front of the person I had a crush on for the longest.

"_Did you figure out how you feel about him yet?" _Akamaru asks as if he were reading my mind.

"I don't know. When he kissed me I didn't quite feel anything."

"_What do you mean?"_

"I heard that if you really love someone that you feel something special when you kiss them or just even around them. I didn't feel any of that with him."

"_Well maybe you just have to give it time." _

"Yeah, maybe." I say. I look back down at the boy sleeping in my lap. His chest rose and fell as he breathed. "We should go." I stand up and place his head gently on the ground careful not to wake him up. I bend down to pick him up in my arms and start the walk back to the house.

Once we reached the house I went to lay Naruto down in his room. I turned to walk out of the room but as soon as I reached the door I heard Naruto call my name. I turned to see him sitting up in bed, a sad expression on his face.

"Can you please stay? I don't want to be alone." Naruto says. He doesn't look at me. Instead, his eyes are downcast looking to the ground.

I walked back over to the bed and sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry for, you know, kissing you when we were in the forest. I have no idea what came over me. I guess I just let my feelings get the best of me, but that's no excuse for doing that. I had no right to just do that."

"Naruto, it's alright." I say. I reach over and grab his hand and he finally looks up at me. I smile to let him know that everything's alright, but he looks down again and pulls his hand from under mine.

I felt my smile drop. I was tired of him being so distant from me. I needed him to know that he could trust me, that I care about him. Obviously telling him wasn't enough so there was only one way to let him know.

What I did next came as a surprise even to myself. I don't know if it was the anger that overcame me or me wanting Naruto to trust me, but whatever it was caused me to put my hand under Naruto's chin, lift his head up, and kiss him. I could feel him try and pull back at first but I kept a firm grip on his chin and leaned in more.

The feeling I heard people talk about, I now understand. I felt like there was electricity flowing through me from the kiss. I felt my beat faster and my mind racing. It was probably one of the best feelings I've ever felt before.

I pulled back, breaking the kiss." We stared at each other in silence for a moment and I swear I saw Naruto start to blush.

"Like I said before, it's alright. Despite that things might not have been so good in your past, I promise you that's all going to change. I told you that I was going to be here for you. I told you that I care about you and those weren't lies.

Naruto smiled and I felt my heart flutter. It made me feel good that he was actually happy and I was the one who made that happen.

"I'm sorry for giving you such a hard time before. I guess I should've been more open with you."

"No, you were going through a rough time; you had the right to keep quiet. I was the one who should be apologizing for trying to make you talk about something personal when you weren't ready to."

"Well I have a chance to open up to you right now."

"You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to."

"I know, but I at least want to tell you one thing."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Well do you remember the first night I spent over here? The night that you came running into the room because I was screaming and having a nightmare?" He asked. I nodded and he continued.

"The dream that I had was about the day we went on the Sasuke retrieval mission. Every night it's the same dream. I'm with Sasuke at the Valley of the End. He's holding me by my throat. I'm running out of air and the next thing I know it happens. He shoves his Chidori right through my chest and everything starts getting dark. Each time it feels so real and I'm reminded of all the pain he caused me."

I saw a tear start sliding down his cheek. I used my thumb to wipe the tear away. "Naruto, I'm sorry. You are the last person who deserves any of this. I swear if I ever see Sasuke again I'll make him pay for what he did to you."

Naruto smiled shyly. "So what does this make us? Are we together?" He asked and I was hoping he would have the answer to that.

"I think so, I mean, if you want to be together."

"Of course I do. You have no idea how many times I've dreamed of something like this." Naruto says and I could see how happy me being with him made him.

I know that I should be glad that he's happy but all I could think about is how badly it'll hurt him and how bad it would make him feel if something bad were to happen between us. I guess I'd have to worry about that when the time comes, I just hope that, that time never actually comes, and that this is just me being my paranoid self.

**A/N:**I Hope you enjoyed the new chapter :D I'm interested to know what you guys think will happen next and if you didn't know I don't write like everyone else so don't think the obvious...or should you? ;)


	10. Second Thoughts

_(Naruto's P.O.V)_

Surprisingly this time when I slept I hadn't dreamed about Sasuke. I wasn't reminded of all the pain he caused me. I didn't even dream of the villagers as I sometimes did. Not even their hate towards me crossed my mind as I slept. I was finally sleeping in peace, if you count not dreaming at all sleeping peacefully.

This is only the second time since Sasuke left that I've been able to sleep peacefully. Once after Kiba woke me up one night when I was having the nightmare and now because…well, I don't actually know why, but I didn't think about it for too long. I was just happy that I could have a peaceful night's sleep.

As much as I wanted to keep on sleeping, my body wasn't having it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't go back to sleep so I laid there just dwelling on my thoughts until I decided it was time to open my eyes. When I did, I was met by the brightness of the sun as it shined its rays through the window.

I went to sit up in bed, but found that something heavy was holding me down by my chest. On instinct I panicked and pushed up a little harder and this time I heard a groggy voice coming from behind me that said, "Stop moving."

My whole body went stiff; I didn't move a muscle. That voice sounded so familiar but I didn't want to jump to conclusions. I looked down to my chest and saw that there was an arm strongly wrapped around me and there was no doubt that it was Kiba's. the only question that went through my mind was why is he in bed with me, more importantly with his arm around me, and then I remembered.

I remember us being in the forest then me waking up back in bed. More importantly I remember Kiba kissing me, asking me if I wanted to be his boyfriend, and me being over excited and saying yes. Then I opened up to him about the dreams I have about Sasuke. Everything after that was a blur but I can guess it led up to me and Kiba falling asleep in bed together.

_He was right. _I think to myself. _Talking to him really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be._

I lay back down with a huge grin on my face. _I have a boyfriend. _I say in my head. _And Kiba's my boyfriend. _Then I repeat it in my head just because I like the way it sounds.

Kiba pulls me closer so that our bodies are up against each other's. I felt his heart beat in his chest against my back. I could feel the heat radiating off of his skin. I could even feel his breath against the back of my neck and ear as he exhaled which sent chills down my spine and sent my heat racing.

I closed my eyes taking in this moment. Taking in the presence of Kiba in my life; being his official boyfriend and feeling protected wrapped up in his arms. The next thing I knew I was fast asleep again with no sign of Sasuke intruding my dreams.

I wake up a little while later. I open my eyes and was met with the sun shining in through the window once again, but this time it was a lot more intense than last time. I lift my arm and rub my eyes and that's when I noticed that there wasn't anything restricting my movements this time; that Kiba's arm wasn't around me anymore. I sat up in bed and looked on both sides of me but there was no sign of him.

I hoped that all that wasn't just a dream. That Kiba being in the same bed as me wasn't just a part of my imagination.

I get out of bed and walk out of the room and walk towards the bathroom. I realized a little while after that Kiba was making his way up the stairs. He came to a stop in front of me and we stood in the middle of the hall staring at each other. He looked down at me with a huge smile on his face, and I looked up at him confused as to why he was smiling. Then the next thing I knew he was leaning in so close that I could feel his breathe and then he was kissing me.

My heart started beating faster at his touch. So everything from earlier really did happen, it wasn't just something I made up in my head.

Kiba pulled back breaking the kiss. He still had that grin on his face. I felt my cheeks start to warm up and I knew I was blushing which only made Kiba's grin widen.

I couldn't believe he could make me feel this way.

"Good morning, boyfriend." He says.

That felt both weird and exciting to hear him call me his 'boyfriend' and I couldn't help but smile. "This is something I'm going to have to get used to" I admit.

"Yeah, you and me both." He says and I could see a look of worry in his eyes.

"Kiba, I'm sorry if I brought you into something you didn't want to be a part of."

"What, no it's not that I don't want to be a part of this; being with you makes me happy. It's just that I never thought it would happen. But since it did, I'm happy that it happened with you." He smiles at me and I just think of how cute he is when he does with his top, overgrown fangs showing ever so slightly.

He leaned down and gave me a peck on the lips. "I'll be in my room if you need me." He says before walking off.

I felt like I was floating. Like I was dreaming and no longer being held back by the restrictions of life. To be honest, I didn't know if this was a dream or not. All I knew was that if it was I didn't want to wake up anytime soon.

I made my way down the hall to the bathroom. I needed to so badly to take a shower.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed as the warm water relaxed my joints. The feeling of Kiba's lips on mine, still present. My mind still racing with thoughts about him and for the first time instead of forcing myself to no think about him, to not let myself have these feelings for him, I indulged on them.

I think of the way his fangs show whenever he smiles, the way his tribal tattoos add to his tough exterior, the way he held me close when we were sleeping, and the best part being the way he kisses me.

I could go on for hours and hours with just listing things that were the reasons for me falling for him, and I probably would have too if it weren't for my thoughts being interrupted by the feeling of water rising up to my ankles and me no longer being able to feel the warmth of the water on my back and was now starting to feel cold.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was now standing in front of Kyuubi. The last thing I expected to hear him say was **I told you so.**

I sighed already knowing what he was talking about.

**You should listen to me more often.** He said.

"It was a lucky guess. He said he didn't know if he was gay or not so you can't blame me for thinking he wasn't. And even if he was, I still never saw a reason why he would like me of all people. I mean he could practically have anyone he wanted."

**You have to give yourself more credit. To be honest you aren't that bad looking, for a human, and you're very caring and a great guy. Even though you might not see it, he obviously thinks so because he's with you.**

Oh great now he was giving me the self-esteem speech. He always used to give me these kinds of talks back when I was depressed; before I tried to kill myself. Obviously the talks weren't very helpful.

**But,**

Now that was something I wasn't expecting.

**But I wouldn't get too comfortable about being with him if I were you. I get the feeling that mother of his won't be too happy about you two being together for more than just the reason of her not liking the fact that her son is gay.**

"What do you mean by that?" I asked confused. Was he trying to say that she wouldn't like me?

**I don't think it's my right to say it. I think it'll be better if you ask Kiba himself.**

I wanted to ask him more questions. Ask him what Kiba had to do with it, ask him to tell me what he knew that I didn't, but I didn't get the chance to because the next thing I knew I was back in the shower with the feeling of the of the warm water against my skin coming back. _So much for my happy mood. _I thought to myself.

Instead of pondering on what Kyuubi just told me, I tried to forget it completely. I wasn't going to figure out what he was talking about anyway and I didn't want to think that there could be a something that would end up with me and Kiba not being together when we just started having a relationship.

I turned the shower off and dried off before walking out of the bathroom and to my room. I didn't feel much like getting dressed. I wasn't going anywhere anyway so I just put on a T-shirt and some boxers.

I sat down on the bed. I know I said I wasn't going to think about what Kyuubi said about Tsume, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't keep his words out my head and I knew I wouldn't be able to until I found out what he was talking about. He said that I had to ask Kiba if I wanted to know. We _were_ dating now so it shouldn't be that hard to talk to him right? At least I hoped it wouldn't.

Feeling a sudden burst of confidence, I walked out of the room and down the hall to Kiba's room. I took a deep breath before I raised my hand and knocked on the door. I heard a muffled voice telling me to "Come in" and I opened the door.

Kiba was lying on his bed with Akamaru next to him. I noticed that his eyes lingered on me and I realized that I was standing there in nothing but my boxers and loose T-shirt. In that moment all the confidence I was feeling before flew out the window. I felt my cheeks start to warm up in a blush, but I tried to force it down.

_Cool and calm, cool and calm._ Was my internal mantra to try and regain my confidence.

I built up enough courage to take a step forward and start the walk to Kiba. Once I reached his bedside I climbed into bed and lay beside him.

We stared into each other's eyes and I felt my heart beat rapidly in my chest just from being this close to him. Then I did something that came as a surprise even to me. I leaned in to give him a peck on the lips then placed my head down on his chest.

I felt him wrap his arm around me and I could hear his heart beat in his chest just as fast as mine was and that made me feel better knowing that I wasn't the only one nervous.

"Is everything alright?" He asks and I had to try and keep myself from dozing off. _He just feels so warm and the rhythm of his heart was helping much either._

"Everything's just great." I tell him. "You know I think I might've found a way to stop the dreams about Sasuke from happening."

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"You." I say with a huge grin on my face.

"Oh really, What makes you think that?"

"Well last night when we slept together I didn't have a single thought about him and there's another time when you woke me up one night when I was dreaming about him. After that I didn't dream about him that night."

"Hm, well it seems as though I have the magic touch." Kiba says with a chuckle.

_You have no idea._ I say to myself as I snuggle closer to him.

"So does this mean you'll be sleeping with me from now on?"

I could hear a flirtatious toe in his voice. "Yeah that doesn't seem like such a bad idea."

A moment of silence fell between us and I knew this was the perfect time to ask him.

"Kiba, how do you think your mom would feel if you told her, you know, about us?"

I could swear I felt him tense up for a slight moment but he quickly relaxed.

"To be honest I don't think she'll be too happy about it. She would disapprove and probably disown me." He says in a solemn tone.

"Well maybe you can try and talk to her."

"You've met my mom. You know she's not an easy person to talk to."

He was right. I didn't really blame him for not wanting her to find out. She could probably out intimidate Tsunade if she wanted to. "Okay you have a point, but you're her son, isn't she supposed to love you no matter what?"

"Yeah, but she's the type of person who doesn't like things that are unnatural. It's that and other reasons why I already know she'll have a problem with it, but I'll make sure she never finds out."

_Other Reasons? Maybe that's what Kyuubi was talking about._

"What do you mean? Reasons like what?"

"Don't worry about it. She's my mother and I'm the one she's going to give problems to, not you. So just let me worry about it."

"Come on, you can tell me. It's not like I'm going to tell anyone." Kiba sighed and I felt his chest slowly rise and fall as he did so.

"I know that. It's just…it's just that I don't really feel much like talking about it."

I could tell that this conversation was becoming emotional and that's way more than I bargained for when I brought up the topic. But how come whenever I didn't feel like talking about something he always got angry and tried to make me talk? Well I wasn't going to be like that. Instead I dropped the subject.

I closed my eyes listening to his heartbeat. Feeling as his chest slowly rose and fell as he breathed. Eventually that was enough to coax me into falling asleep. And just as I thought, no dreams of Sasuke.

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

Minutes of silence passed and I soon realized that Naruto had fallen asleep on my chest. I could hear a light snore coming from him and that only made him all the more cuter than I originally thought he was. I felt him snuggle closer to me and I pulled him in enjoying the feeling of him in my arms.

"_So how do you plan to handle it when Tsume finds out about the two of you being together?" _Akamaru asks me.

"That's easy, she's not going to find out." I say.

"_You and I both know that it's going to be impossible to keep it a secret from her forever." _

"Well what else do you expect me to do? You of all people should know what'll happen if I tell her."

"_Well maybe that won't happen. Maybe she'd be okay with it."_

"That would be nice, but too bad that's not the case. And besides, she still holds a grudge against him for what happened, even though it wasn't his fault."

"_Yeah, I know." _Akamaru says. Even though we were both so young we still remember it as if it were yesterday. The day my mom told me what happened.

Just then came a knock at the door. _Now how was I supposed to do this? _I thought to myself. Naruto was sleeping so close to me and his head was lying on my chest making it almost impossible for me to get up and go to the door without waking him up.

For a moment I thought of just ignoring it. Whoever it was could come back later. But then I thought of the chance that it could be my mom. If I didn't answer the door, she would get pissed and find a way in and possibly catch me and Naruto in bed together. I rather have Naruto wake up than risk my mom catching us like this.

I tried my best to sneak out from under Naruto without waking him up but it turned out to be harder than I was hoping. Every time I moved even the slightest inch, he would twitch and groan as if he were about to wake up.

Another knock at the door came and I could tell that the person was becoming impatient because the knocks were harder than last time. I knew that I would have to move fast before it was too late.

I slowly unwrapped my arm from around him and having no other choice I quickly moved from under him, cupping his head in my hand and placing it slowly on the pillow. I got off the bed but froze where I stood as Naruto groaned and turned over in bed.

I was literally holding my breath as if the slightest sound would make him wake up, until he settled in bed and I was sure that he was fast asleep again. I hurried out the room and down the stairs.

When I opened the door I was relieved to see that it was Tsunade at the door instead of my mother. But I shouldn't be too happy because judging by the look on her face she wasn't too pleased with me making her wait so long.

"Hello Kiba, can I speak with Naruto for a minute?" She asks.

"Oh, sorry, but he's sleeping." I tell her.

"Really? This is the second time I've been over he's been sleeping in the middle of the day. Is everything alright with him?"

"Oh don't worry, everything's fine. He was just tired that's all."

"If you say so." She says giving me a weird look as if she thought I was lying, but I wasn't. I was just keeping some of the details out. "Well when he wakes up tell him I need to see him in my office."

"Sure, will do."

She was turning to leave when all of a sudden I shouted for her to wait. She turned around and gave me a questioning look. "Uh can you come in? I have something I need to talk to you about."

"Okay."

I stepped back from the door to let her in and led her to the kitchen where we sat down at the table.

"What do you need to talk about?" She asks and that's a really good question. I know I asked her to come in so I can talk to her, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to talk to her about.

Could it be that I wanted to tell her about mine and Naruto's relationship? Or was it about how I was having second thoughts about even having a relationship with him to begin with?

"Kiba, is everything okay?" Tsunade asks and I realized that I was in my mind longer than I thought I was.

"Yeah, it's just that so much has happened in the past few days. I don't even know where to start."

"Things like what? Good things, bad things."

Another question I didn't know the answer to. I opened my mouth to say something, but I was cut off by the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. Me and Tsunade both turned to see Naruto standing in the doorway.

"Hey granny, what are you doing here?" Naruto said with a huge grin on his face.

"I came to speak with you, but Kiba informed me that you were sleeping. So me and him were just having a little conversation."

"Oh, did he tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Naruto walked over to me and leaned down to give me a peck on the cheek. I could see the huge smile he was giving Tsunade and I could tell that us being together really made him happy. But why did I get a bad feeling in my stomach from seeing him be so happy?

"I'm so happy for you to." Tsunade said with a genuine smile on her face. "Kiba, would you mind giving me and Naruto moment to talk?"

"Sure." I said. I got up and walked upstairs to my room. I needed a moment to myself anyway.

_(Naruto's P.O.V)_

I sat down at the table across from Tsunade. For some reason I couldn't get that huge smile off my face.

"So Naruto, how are you feeling?" Tsunade asks.

For once I wasn't annoyed by the question.

"For the first time in a really long time I think I'm actually happy."

"I think it's safe to assume that Kiba is the cause of this." Tsunade says and she has no idea how right she is. "I'm glad he makes you this happy, but I don't think you're ready for a relationship like this."

"What do you mean I'm not ready, I'm seventeen."

"It's not that you're too young, it's just that I don't think you're emotionally ready. What if something goes bad in the relationship? Are you ready to handle something like that?"

"Tsunade, nothing's going to happen. He really cares about me. He won't do anything to hurt me like that." _There's no way he would._

Tsunade sighed. "If you say so. I just hope you're right."

"Wait, do you really think Kiba would do something like that?" I ask more worried than defensive.

"To be honest I don't know Kiba that well so I don't know what he's capable of doing. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

I smiled knowing that she only wanted to see me happy. "You don't have to worry about me. I'm not the same helpless kid I was before."

"I know you're not, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to worry. You know that you can come to me for anything right?"

"Yes, I know." I say a little tired of hearing someone say that.

"I'm just making sure you know that." She stood up, walked over to me, and kissed me on my forehead. "I really care about you and I don't know what I'll do if anything were to happen to you." She looked at me with such caring eyes. "I'll be back later to check up on you and you're always welcomed to stop by my office." She says before leaving.

I sat at the table staring down at my hands. Now I was second thoughts about being with Kiba.


	11. Love Kills

**A/N:** I'm so sorry for the long wait but finally here's a nice long chapter. I hope this makes up for the long wait :)

* * *

><p><em><span>(Kiba's P.O.V)<span>_

I lay in bed with Naruto sleeping with his head on my bare chest and my arm wrapped around him. It was the middle of the night and I couldn't get to sleep no matter how hard I tried. My mind was just too crowded with thoughts of what happened today.

After Tsunade left, it was like mine and Naruto's relationship was going downhill. I noticed that Naruto was being distant from me. He wasn't as cheerful and touchy as he was before; he wouldn't even speak to me. All day I couldn't help but wonder what Tsunade had talked to him about. I know for sure that she asked questions about our relationship. I can picture Naruto smiling so hard that his cheeks probably started to hurt as he explained to her what happened, but why would he be so down from explaining something that I knew was great news for him?

Maybe she really didn't approve of us being together. Maybe she only pretended to be happy for us because I was in the room. What if she told him to break up with me or said that she didn't trust me?

To be honest, I don't think that would be such a terrible idea. I have to admit we did rush into things and I for one don't think I'm ready for a real relationship especially one that could get me in serious trouble. What makes it worse is that I'm still not all sure about my feelings.

I sighed trying to push these thoughts out of my head but they only ended up getting worse with the same question that's been bothering me since I first started thinking about the possibility of me being gay and having feelings for Naruto. What if my mom found out?

I felt my body become weak at the thought and I thought I was going to be sick. Maybe she's the reason why I'm having second thoughts about being with Naruto. I was scared of disappointing her. More importantly I was scared of what she'd do to me.

Well whatever the reason was I didn't want to think about it. All I wanted to do was sleep. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my head. I took a deep breath and Naruto's scent filled my nose sent my heart racing.

Why would my body react this way to him if I truly didn't have any feelings towards him?

_(Naruto's P.O.V)_

I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw when my vision cleared was Kiba's bare chest and I knew I had fallen asleep on him. Normally I would be overly excited about this. My heart beating fast in my chest from nervousness and my cheeks getting warm as a slight blush appeared on my cheeks, but this time was different. I didn't feel any of that.

Instead of the normal happy feeling I should be having right now, I was feeling like complete shit. My head was filled with thoughts of what Tsunade told me yesterday and the worse part is I was thinking she was right, that something was going to happen between me and Kiba to damage our relationship and to be honest I think she was right about me. I don't think I'm strong enough to handle it if something did happen.

Not really knowing what to do, I closed my eyes and pictured myself in front of Kyuubi's cage. He was the only person I had to talk to at the moment and I figured he could help me decide on what to do.

It wasn't long until I felt water around my ankles and the temperature around me drop. When I opened my eyes I was standing in front of a huge cage with a huge sleeping fox behind it.

"Kyuubi, I really need to talk." I say.

The fox opened its eyes and looked down at me with huge red eyes. **What's wrong kit? **He asks.

"It's Kiba." I tell him.

**What's the matter, trouble in paradise?**

"That's not funny, I'm serious." I say giving him a hard look. "Yesterday when Tsunade came to visit me and we started talking about mine and Kiba's relationship and whether or not I'll be strong enough to handle it if the relationship doesn't last. I know that Kiba won't do anything to hurt me, at least that was before the talk with her. Now I'm having second thoughts about all of this."

**Naruto, I think you're forgetting that I was there when all of this happened. **Kyuubi says. **But I have to admit, in a way Tsunade's right. I don't think you're ready to handle a rough patch in the relationship. **This is not what I wanted to hear. He was not supposed to agree with her. **But I also don't see Kiba doing anything to hurt you, but anything can happen.**

"So what do you think I should do?"

**Personally, I would break things off with him, just until you can get your emotions under control.**

"But I don't want to lose him. Being with him makes me feel so happy. I've never felt this way around anyone before."

**You won't lose him. Even if you break things off with him I can guarantee that Kiba will still be there for you no matter what.**

I sighed. I hoped everything he said was true.

**Hey, this is only my suggestion. In the end you have the power to do whatever you believe is right, but right now, it's time for you to open your eyes.**

For the second time this morning I open my eyes with the image of Kiba's chest being the first thing I see. The only difference is this time there was the sound of Kiba groaning as he woke up. I felt the arm he had wrapped around me lift off as he stretched.

I propped myself on my elbow and looked down at him.

"Good morning cutie." He says looking at me with sleepy eyes and giving me a weak smile.

I couldn't help but smile back at how cute he looked with his naturally shaggy brown hair even more untamed than usual and the tiny bit of dry drool out of the corner of his mouth.

He leaned up and kissed me and I wondered how I'd ever be able to break things off with him.

"Ew morning dog breath." I say jokingly as I fan the air in front of me.

"Hey, don't act like you don't like it. At least it's better than morning ramen breathe." Kiba says back.

I couldn't help but laugh at that. As stupid as it was, it was still funny.

My laughter was caught short when I felt something cold against my cheek. I turn to see that Kiba had cupped my cheek in his palm and was now looking at me with such caring eyes. I looked down and immediately felt my cheeks begin to warm in a bush.

_So much for not feeling nervous around him. _I think to myself.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better. Why were you ignoring me yesterday anyway?"

"I…" I started off saying but then trailed off.

What should I say? Should I tell him the truth, that I was having second thoughts about our relationship? Or do I do what Kyuubi said and tell him that I don't want to be in a relationship with him right now?

A long silence filled the room and I knew Kiba was waiting for me to say something, but I just couldn't bring myself to say either of those things. Then I hear the words just slip out. "It's nothing."

"Really, because I don't think you would ignore me over nothing. After Tsunade left, you were acting so different from before. You wouldn't even talk to me. Come on, Naruto, you know you can tell me anything."

I sighed. Hiding secrets from him was going to be a lot harder now that we were together.

"It's nothing, really, we were just talking about a touchy subject that got to me and I guess I was taking it out on you which I shouldn't have done."

"Well if you say so. I'm here if you ever want to talk about it."

"I know." I say with a smile. I give him a peck on the lips and we lay back down in bed, my head on his chest and his arm wrapped around me. I close my eyes and listen to the sound of his heart beat and realize that it would be harder than I thought to break up with him.

/

The next time I opened my eyes, Kiba wasn't laying in bed with me and I was in bed by myself. I sit up in bed stretching and yawning. The bedroom door opened and Kiba walked in.

"Oh good you're up, now you can hurry up and get dressed." Kiba said.

"Someone's in a bossy mood this morning." I say in a tired voice rubbing my eyes. "Get dressed for what anyway?"

"We're going somewhere and the quicker we get there the better."

"Well can I ask if this place has any food because I'm starving."

"In a way it does, but don't worry about that. All you have to worry about now is getting dressed."

I let out a sigh. "Alright fine." I got out of bed and started getting dressed. I had initially wanted to stay in, but at least I was going to be with Kiba.

When I finished getting dressed, Kiba started leading me to some place on the Inuzuka estate. We were no longer surrounded by a bunch of people that looked like Kiba with the same unruly brown hair and upside down triangles on their cheeks. Instead, we were surrounded by a whole bunch of trees. At first I thought he was taking back to the stream we were at before, but it didn't look like the same path.

Soon I gave up on trying to guess where we were going and just asked him. "Kiba, where are we going?"

"You'll find out soon enough, just be patient." He replied.

My stomach growled and I put my hand over it in an attempt to calm it down. At this rate, I was going to starve to death. "I swear this place better have food or else I'll end up having to eat you."

"Well you already have an idea of how I taste from our kisses and judging from the amount of times you kissed me I'm guessing I taste pretty good." Kiba looks at me with a huge grin on his face and all I could do is blush and look away.

Eventually, we came across a clearing that was completely isolated. It was quiet except for a few birds chirping here and there and I thought it would be the perfect place to relax. Unfortunately, there wasn't any food here and this is when Kiba decided to say 'we're here'.

"It's nice and all and don't take this the wrong way but, why did you drag me out of bed to come here?" I say taking in my surroundings.

"We, my beloved boyfriend, are at an Inuzuka training ground and are finally going to have our rematch."

"What?!" But I haven't eaten yet. I can't fight on an empty stomach, especially not a two on one match. Besides, I didn't bring my ninja tools."

"You won't have to worry about any of that. I already know I won't need Akamaru's help to beat you and I've got you covered on the ninja tools." He said as he pulled out a pouch of ninja tools and tossed it to me.

"Okay, but what about the food part?"

"If you beat me, which you won't, I'll treat you to all you can eat ramen."

"Alright, now you're talking! Oh and by the way, there's no way you're going to beat me. I hope kicking your ass doesn't ruin our relationship."

"Oh you don't have to worry about that because it won't be happening." Kiba says with a smug grin on his face.

"Yeah, well we'll see about that. Shadow Clone Jutsu!" I say summoning five clones. They immediately spread out and surround him.

"And you were worried about being out numbered when you have your shadow clones." Kiba says.

"Hey, this is different."

"In what way is this different?"

"I don't know, but I'll come up with a reason while I'm kicking your ass. Now are we going to get started or do you want to bitch some more?"

"You seem to be really aggressive today." Kiba said as he took out a kunai.

"Only when ramen is on the line." I say getting into my fighting position.

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

I bring the Kunai in front of and get into my fighting stance. There was so much tension in the air you could cut it with a knife. Both of us were waiting for the other to make the first move. I look to my right and see Akamaru running around chasing a butterfly and I suddenly regret making a rule that he won't fight with me. I mean, I will still win without him, but it'll just take a little longer than it would with him.

I hear movement coming from my left and I quickly turn my head to see one of Naruto's clones charging my way. He jumped and threw a kick but I ducked and stabbed him in the back with the kunai and watched him disappear in a cloud of smoke. I hear movement coming from all around me this time and see the rest of Naruto's clones charging towards me.

One throws a punch in my direction but I easily dodged it, but in the process ended up getting grabbed from behind. I tried struggling against his grip but to no use. Out of the corner of my eye I see a clone running to me with a Kunai but I kick him in the gut and he disappears. I manage to break free from the other one and turn around bringing the kunai across his face and watch him disappear too.

_Three down. _I think to myself. _So that means there should only be two more clones and the real Naruto left. That is if he didn't summon more clones. _I looked around, but couldn't find a single Naruto around.

I tried concentrating my chakra to my ears and nose to heighten my senses, but still couldn't hear him or even catch his scent. _I've got to hand it to him; he's definitely getting better at being sneaky._

I hear footsteps coming from behind me and I turn around to see him running towards me with his rasengan. I managed to jump out of the way just barely evading it and throw a kunai at him.

It hits him in his back but unfortunately he disappears in a cloud of smoke and it turns out that he was actually a clone.

I growled getting annoyed by this. I know that Naruto was practically the king of shadow clones and this was supposed to be expected, but still.

Now I was surrounded by nothing but silence. The only sounds that could be heard were the wind blowing through the trees and a few birds chirping around me. _Where is he hiding? _I look all around but couldn't see a single sign of him. There's no way he could've gone far so if he wasn't going to come out willingly then maybe I could convince him to come out.

"Come on Naruto, is this all you've got; a couple of shadow clones?" I shout into the air. "You defeated Pein, I expected more from the great hero of the Hidden Leaf. Either you're holding back on me or you really lost your touch. At this rate I'll be the one to become Hokage. Better yet, you better start working harder if you want that free ramen." Still I heard nothing and now I was becoming even more annoyed.

I slowly started walking to the end of the clearing making sure to stay on guard just in case Naruto tried to do a surprise attack on me.

I was only a few inches away from a tree when I heard rustling coming from a bush to my right. I turn to face it and could see that it was moving slightly and not from the wind. I grin and start making my way towards it.

"Nice try Naruto, but the game is over." I say stopping in front of the still moving bush. His scent was all over the bush and there was no doubt he was in there.

The next thing I knew I was being knocked to the ground and sent rolling. I didn't stop until I was probably near the center of the clearing. I felt a heavy weight pressing down against my waist and I felt my arms be pinned down to the ground above my head. When I opened my eyes I was met by a smiling blond with ocean blue eyes whose features only looked even better in the sunlight.

"I was in a tree not the bush." Naruto says with a huge grin. "So does this mean I win?" He asks.

"Nope." I say.

"What, why not?"

"Because I can still do this." I break from Naruto's grasp and flip us over so that Naruto was on his back and I was in between his legs. He tried fighting back but I pinned his arms down above his head just like he did to me.

"I win." I say and now it was my turn to grin, but why was he smiling back? I expected him to be complaining, putting up more of a fight than this. Then I feel something sharp against the back of my head.

"I don't think so dog breathe." I hear Naruto's voice coming from behind me. _Oh great, more shadow clones._

"He was the one in the bushes." The Naruto in front of me says.

I sigh. "Alright fine, you win." I say. The shadow clone behind me disappears.

"Yes, free ramen!" Naruto shouts.

I couldn't help but smile at how happy he was. I lean down close so that our faces were merely inches away from each other and he instantly became silent and I felt his body become tense. I closed the distance between us and connected our lips in a kiss.

I felt Naruto lean up into the kiss, but that's not the only thing I felt. I felt my heart start racing in my chest with excitement, my mind start racing with thoughts of just me and Naruto together without a care in the world.

This is when I realize that I really care for him and see that he makes me beyond happy. I realize that all my doubts about us being together were all caused by me being scared of what my mom would think, but at this moment I could really care less about what she thought of our relationship.

I break the kiss and we stay there staring into each other's eyes, breathing heavy trying to catch our breaths.

"So how about that ramen?" Naruto says.

"Is ramen all you can think about?" I ask him.

"Well what else do you expect when you drag me out of bed without eating breakfast and then offer me free ramen?"

"Okay, I'll be a good boyfriend and buy you free ramen."

He smiled and I swear that's the biggest I've ever seen him smile before. Seeing him this happy made me feel so good inside.

"Naruto, can I tell you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well at first I was starting to have doubts that me and you can actually be together. I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to hurt you, but now I see that I was wrong for thinking that. No matter what anyone thinks, not even my mother, I want to be with you."

The next thing I know Naruto wraps his arms around my neck and brings my head down in a kiss.

"I swear you're the best boyfriend I ever had, not that I had other boyfriends or anything, but you know what I mean."

A moment of silence falls between us with us just staring, smiling at each other. Too bad that moment was interrupted when Naruto's stomach growled loud enough to be heard throughout the clearing. I laughed and he blushed bright red from embarrassment.

"How about we get you that ramen?"

_(Naruto's P.O.V)_

The day was filled with just me and Kiba enjoying each other's company. Now I was lying in bed talking to Kyuubi. "You see, he really does care about me. You and Tsunade were just being over protective."

**I'll admit that I was being somewhat protective, but you even admitted yourself that you won't be able to handle it when something bad happens in your guys' relationship. **Kyuubi says.

"How are you so sure that's even going to happen?"

**Because it always does. You of all people should know that good things don't always last long no matter how much you want them to.**

"Well…what if we're different. What if we can be together without things going bad?"

**You know what, think what you want to think because you're obviously not going to listen to a word I say.**

"Why can't you just be happy for me instead of always trying to bring me down?!"

**I'm only trying to prepare you for what's to come.**

I opened my eyes and stare at the ceiling of the bedroom. I didn't want to hear any of that. Me and Kiba were happy together and that's all that matters.

I sighed. I needed to get my mind off of this. I got out of bed and walked out the room towards the bathroom. I opened the door to the bathroom and instantly steam rushed out into the hall.

The moment the steam cleared from the bathroom I got a clear view of a naked, dripping wet Kiba. We stood still, frozen in place, neither of us making a move. Me standing in the doorway completely dumbstruck and Kiba standing there with a towel in his hands raised to his head as if he were about to dry his hair just before I walked in and interrupted him.

The next think I know, my eyes start roaming down his body. My eyes traveled down from his strong chest to his toned stomach to his-

I shook my head realizing that I was about to take a peek at Kiba's nether regions so to speak.

"I-I'm so sorry." I struggle to say. I practically run out of the bathroom closing the door behind me. I go to my room and close the door. I lean against it and close my eyes trying to forget what just happened but image of Kiba just kept coming back. My heart was racing so fast in my chest. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't shake the fact that deep down I couldn't help but wish that I had actually got a peek before I ran out of the bathroom.

_At least I'm not thinking about what Kyuubi said. _I think to myself. _But now every time I look at Kiba I'm going to have that image in my head._

There was a knock on the door followed by Kiba's voice telling me to open up.

Despite the voices in my head telling me not to and to come up with an excuse as to why I can't open the door, I turn and open it anyway.

As soon as I do I see Kiba standing there still fully naked and dripping wet. My eyes widened in shock once I realized what was happening.

"K-Kiba, w-what are you doing?" I stutter and take a step back, but he quickly closes the distance and places his wet hands on my hips and pulls me in close. His wet body against mine making my clothes become wet and stick to my body.

He leans in to kiss me then starts leading me backwards and I end up falling over onto the bed with him climbing on top of me and continuing to kiss me.

My heart was beating so fast that I thought it would explode.

_What the hell has gotten into him? _I didn't have much time to come up with a reason for his actions as I felt Kiba push my shirt up halfway and placed his wet hands on my bare sides.

Kiba breaks the kiss. Both of us are panting hard trying to catch our breaths. I want to ask him what's gotten into him, but he says something before I get the chance to.

"Sit up." He orders between breaths. He sits back on his knees giving me some room and also a good view of his erection. I literally gulp at the site of it. At least now I know what was causing him to do this.

Not wanting to see what he'll do if I don't do as he says, I nervously sit up trying to keep my eyes from looking downward.

As soon as I'm sitting up I feel Kiba tugging on my shirt roughly pulling it up over my head and ends up throwing it to the side of the room. Then I'm being pushed back down onto the bed with both my hands pined above my head and Kiba kissing me again.

His legs were on either side of me and he's bending down far enough so that I could feel his lower half on my stomach.

My breathing pitched once I felt him start grinding his erection on me. I even felt him start to breath harder as his grinding motions began to quicken.

I was beyond turned on right now and didn't want him to stop.

One of his hands leaves my arms and he stops his grinding and lifts off me a little. I feel a wet spot from where his dick was on my stomach and I couldn't tell wheatear it was water or cum or both.

The next thing I knew. Kiba's hand was grabbing my hard-on through my pants. I moaned into the kiss and thrust up into his hand wanting more.

Kiba breaks the kiss and stares down at me with a cocky grin. "You like that?" He asks in a smug tone and all I could do is nervously nod.

He continues playing with my hard-on through my pants which earns him more moans from me and makes him grin even wider at how he's able to make me react to his touch.

I was in complete ecstasy. I close my eyes and kept thrusting up into Kiba's hand while he played with my cock. If he keeps this up I was going to end up cumming in my pants right there.

"Do you want me to keep going?" I hear him whisper in my ear. I nod and I hear him chuckle at my reaction.

Despite my wanting him to keep going, I felt his hand lift off my crotch. I open my eyes and see that Kiba was leaning down and started to undo my pants. He pulls them off and my erection springs to life, pitching a tent in my boxers. From where I laid I could see that the tip of my boxers were wet with precum.

_I've never been this turned on before. Then again I've never had someone to make me feel this much pleasure before._

Kiba throws my pants to the side and in an instant he's back on top of me. His hand plays with my bulge through my boxers rubbing it and sometimes wrapping around it giving a few small strokes. I couldn't help but moan in pleasure by his actions. If I didn't know better than I would say that Kiba had some practice with other guys.

He stopped playing with it and got rid of my boxers exposing my hard cock. Now I was completely naked in front of him and the strange thing was that I wasn't even fazed by it. I didn't really notice anything besides the pleasure Kiba was giving me.

I felt a cold, wet hand wrap around my cock and slowly start to stroke up and down. He was moving at an agonizing paste and I think he was doing that on purpose.

"Kiba, faster." I say between heavy breaths.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" He says in a playful tone.

"Don't be an asswhole."

I could hear him laugh right before he started stroking faster. His wet hand making it easy to slide up and down. Every time he would get to the tip he would twist his hand around the head which earned him a moan each time. I knew I was going to cum soon and I started thrusting into his hand bringing me closer to my climax.

Kiba grabbed one of my hands with his free one and wrapped it around his own hard cock. I could feel him guide my hand up and down and I soon got the message and started stoking it.

He leans down and connects his lips with mine and I begin moaning uncontrollably into the kiss. His stroking picks up and I knew I was going to cum. I arched my back up as I cum all over mine and Kiba's chest.

He disconnects our lips and we're both breathing heavy, but I seem to be the only one who's calming down as Kiba continues to breathe hard.

I feel his hand on top of mine guiding it up and down his cock and I realize that he's still hard. I pick up speed, stroking up and down his wet cock. Now it was my turn to make him moan. I could feel him start to thrust into my hand.

He places his head down between my neck and shoulder. His breathing hot and fast against my skin. I couldn't believe that I was actually getting turned on again.

His breathing hitched and his thrusts became faster and the next thing I knew my hand and our chests were being covered in his cum.

Kiba lifts his head and looks at me with a grin on his face. His breathing is beginning to calm down and return back to normal.

"Looks like I have to take another shower. Would you like to join me this time?" He asks.

I smile and that give him his answer.

/

I opened my eyes and was greeted by the morning light. I yawned and stretched in bed then sat up and rubbed my eyes. As usual I didn't feel Kiba's presence next to me. _Why did he always wake up so early?_

I got out of bed and walked on groggy legs out the door and downstairs to the kitchen.

"Oh, look who's up." Kiba says with a grin on his face. He was sitting at the table and I pulled up a chair next to him and placed my head on his shoulder. He wraps his arm around me and pulls me in close.

"You know this morning I was thinking." He says.

"Oh wow, that's a first." I joke.

"Oh haha very funny, but I'm being serious. I was thinking about if I should tell you what happened to my father and considering we're going to be together for a long time I figured why not."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I know, but I want to tell you." There's a pause and Kiba takes a deep breath before he starts speaking. "I remember I was little, maybe about five or six when my mom decided it was time for her to tell me about him. She told me he was a kind man. That he always thought of others before himself. She also told me that he was her fist and only love. Apparently he was a hopeless romantic and took every chance he had to do something special for her. I'm guessing that's why she took it so hard when he died."

"How did he die?" I ask, but it was only met by another long pause. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's okay. My mother told me that he was a strong man. That he was one of the Inuzuka's strongest. She once believed that there was nothing that could stop him. That is until the day the nine tails attacked."

That was all he needed to say. I already knew what was coming next. Wait, is this what Kyuubi was talking about that he couldn't tell me? Is this what will prevent Tsume from liking?

"I'm so sorry." I say

"It's okay. I'm not like the villagers, I don't blame you for the things the fox did."

"And that's another reason why you're the best boyfriend ever, because you understand."

"I might understand, but my mom certainly doesn't. She blames you for everything, but I think it's only because the fox killed my dad. Because of that even if she was okay with me being gay, I doubt she'd approve of me and you being together."

Again with people not wanting us to be together. Instead of complaining and judging us, why can't they just be happy for us? It's not like we're hurting anyone.

As if sensing my distress, I felt Kiba's arm tighten around me as he pulled me in close. "Don't worry, like I said before, no matter what my mom says I will never leave you."

I smile up at him and couldn't help but feel happy. Maybe I was right. Maybe me and Kiba could be together without anything bad happening to damage our relationship.

"Hey, how about we just stay in today?"

"Yeah, that sounds great."

/

**What's up Kit? **Kyuubi asks me.

Me and Kiba were just laying in bed talking about random things. I told him how I came about my obsession with ramen and he told me about the tradition of getting the tribal tattoos. Now he was downstairs doing something and I took this as the opportunity to talk to Kyuubi.

"Nothing, I just wanted to apologize for blowing up at you like that yesterday. I know you were only trying to help." I say

**Don't sweat it, there's no harm done. I can't really blame you for reacting the way you did. You're young and in love for the first time and I know you don't want anything to stop that.**

"Yeah, but I still feel bad. I mean, you're like my best friend and I treated you like you were against me.

**Hey, there's no need to fret. As long as you're my Jinchuriki I'll be here for you no matter what. A tiny argument won't change that.**

"Thanks, I knew I could always count on you."

"Hey Naruto, I have a gift for you." Kiba says.

I open my eyes and I'm back in the bedroom. Kiba climbs on top of me and I look around the room for my gift but see nothing."

"Where is it?" I ask him.

"You're looking at it." He says before kissing me.

I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him in closer. I could never get tired of this.

His hands immediately go to take my shirt off. I sit up and he takes it off discarding it to some random part of the room.

He lays me back down on the bed and starts kissing down from my neck all the way down my bare body up to the waist band of my pants. He looks up at me with a sly grin then sits up to take his own shirt off.

"You like what you see?" He asks.

I shrug my shoulders. "No, not really, I've seen better." I tease.

"Oh is that true?" He starts rubbing my crotch making me tilt my head back and moan. "I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that."

"I've seen better." I say between heavy breaths.

"Is that so? Well what about this?" He started to undo his pants and I feel my heart start to beat fast knowing what was going to come next. His pants were undone and I could see his bulge in his boxers.

"Kiba Inuzuka, get your ass down here this second!" A voice shouts from downstairs.

I see Kiba's eyes widen. I could see his eyes were completely swallowed up by fear.

"Kiba!" The voice screamed again this time making Kiba jump.

Kiba quickly redid his pants and redressed in record time and he literally ran out of the room.

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

I run downstairs as fast as I can, skipping the steps two at a time. My legs were shaking so much I had to struggle not to trip over my own feet.

I reach the bottom of the stairs and I'm face to face with the scariest person in the entire village, my mother, and she didn't look to be the least bit happy."

"Mom, what are you-"

"Shut up!" She says cutting me off. If I weren't used to her being like this I swear I would've peed my pants. "What took you so long and don't even think of lying because I'll know."

_Come on Kiba, you've practiced at this a thousand times. Calm down, take deep slow breaths, don't stutter, and look her in the eyes._ "I was in the bathroom when you called me." I tell her.

She looks at me skeptically for a moment before continuing. "Alright, I'm sorry about that."

Wait did she just apologize? She never apologizes especially not to me of all people. Something was up with her.

"Mom, is everything okay?"

"I believe so, unless there's something you want to tell me."

"No, why would you think that?"

"Oh, I don't know. We haven't spoken in a while. You never come over to visit and I just wanted to check up on my son. I hope you're not starting to slack off in your ninja training."

"No, of course not. I still train like every day."

"That's good."

There was a silence that fell between us. "Uh, is that all you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Uh, there was something more important I needed to talk to you about, but I don't quite remember what I was. Damn this old age." She says. "Well until I remember what I wanted to talk to you about Just promise me that you'll come visit me more often."

"Yeah sure, no problem."

I turn and make my way back up stairs. _That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be._

"Oh, Kiba I remembered what I wanted to say." Tsume says once I reach the top of the stairs.

_Oh great, I spoke too soon._

"Yes?" I turn and see her walking up the stairs.

"I can't believe I almost forgot. How is watching over Naruto going? I hope he isn't causing you too much trouble." By this point she was standing in front of me and I had to take a step back from how close she was.

"He's doing okay. Watching over him isn't as hard as I thought it would be."

"Oh that's good to hear, but you want to know what isn't?"

_I'd rather not. _"What might that be?"

"Hearing that my son, heir to the Inuzuka Clan, was having some very intimate contact with Naruto at the Inuzuka special training ground."

"What, Who told you that?!"

"Kuromaru told me. What's the matter, you seem surprised by this. Is this not true?"

I can't believe it. That fucking snitch! He was always out to get me and Naruto. He must've been really excited when he caught us especially on something he knew would disappoint my mom.

Well I couldn't have expected to be able to hide this secret from her for long. She was bound to figure out sooner or later. Now I finally get my chance to stand up to her. To tell her about mine and Naruto's relationship, but will I be strong enough to actually go through with it? Great, now I was starting to have doubts at a time like this.

The image of me and Naruto came into my head. Images of us being together without a worry in the world. I think of how happy he makes me just by thinking about him and this is enough to make me regain my courage.

"Well Kiba, did it happen or not?" She asks.

I look at her and see that he temper was getting worse by the second. _Come on Kiba stand up for yourself._ Then the words just spill out.

"No, of course not!" It takes a while for my brain to register what I just said and I instantly regretted it.

"Oh really, so you're saying Kuromaru was lying?"

"Yes, you know how much he doesn't like me and he's always been out to get me." _Stop lying!_

"Okay, so what really did happen at the training field?"

_Tell her the truth! _"We were training then out of nowhere Naruto tries to kiss me, but I pushed him away from me."

"So you're saying Naruto is the one who came on to you. So there isn't anything going on between you two?"

_Yes there is! I'm his boyfriend! He makes me feel so happy and I think I might even love him. _"No, of course not! That's fucking disgusting!"

"Then why the hell do I smell him all over you?"

"Because we live in the same house, we're bound to interact with each other sooner or later."

She was giving me a skeptical look as if she didn't believe me which she shouldn't. Everything I was saying was a lie and with every word I said I knew the more I was hurting mine and Naruto's relationship. Maybe I wasn't as ready for my mom to find out as I thought I was.

"Mom, come on, you known me. Even if I were gay I would never be with Naruto of all people. Not after what he did to dad." _He didn't have anything to do with it. He's too kind and sweet to ever want to hurt anyone without reason._

"Where is he?"

"What?"

"Where's the fucking nine tails brat? I'll teach him a lesson for trying to corrupt my son."

_He didn't corrupt me, he did the complete opposite of that. He helped me figure out who I was. _"Mom, don't worry about it. I'm going to Tsunade today about getting someone else to watch over him. He was starting to get annoying anyway."

"Alright, he got lucky this time, but what I don't understand is why did you lie and say that everything was alright with him?"

"Because I knew you'd react like this, when I was already going to handling it."

"I knew I shouldn't have let him stay here."

"Yeah, I regret ever agreeing to let him stay here." _Him being here was the best thing that's ever happened to me._

"I want him out of here immediately."

"Okay, I'll go to Tsunade right away."

She turns and practically stomps down out of the house and slams the door behind her.

I let out a sigh of relief that she was gone, but I couldn't shake the feeling of disgust I've felt for myself. Why would I say that? I was supposed to defend our relationship, but instead I ended up lying, pretending that we were never together. I even bad mouthed Naruto in the process. Maybe it'll be better if we weren't together in the first place. As much as I hated to admit it that was the best option.

"Naruto, we have to talk." I say as I walk back into the room, but he was nowhere to be seen and Akamaru was knocked out cold in the corner.

It took me a while to realize what happened, but when I did it hit me like a brick. He heard what I said about him and our relationship.

_(Naruto's P.O.V)_

I wiped the tears from my eyes as Kiba's words replayed over and over again in my head. I can't believe that I was so stupid as to think that he would actually choose me over his mom.

"You were right." I say through my sobs to Kyuubi.

**I know, but I wish I wasn't. **He says.

"I should've listened to you. Then none of this would've happened."

**Neither of us knew what was going to happen. For all we know you could've been right and you and Kiba could've lived a happy life together.**

"But I wasn't and he ended up being too scared to tell his mom the truth about us even after he said he would."

**But can you blame him for being afraid to?**

"No, but that doesn't give him the right to lie to me and say that he was going to tell her then accuse me of coming on to him at the training ground and killing his father when I had nothing to do with that."

I sniffed and wiped my eyes again but the tears just kept coming. "I'm tired of being lied to and used by people. It's obvious to me now that no one is ever going to truly love me."

**That's not true. What about Tsunade?**

"She'll probably just end up being the same as Kiba. Turning on me when I just start to really trust her."

**So what are you going to do now?**

"I'm going to do what I tried to do before." I open my eyes and come back to reality. The loud sound of the rushing waterfall pounding on my ear drums once again. "I'm going to end it all." I say.

I stand up and for the third time I'm looking over the edge of the side of the waterfall in front of me. The only difference is that this time I was going to do it and succeed.

The tears were so much that they started clouding my vision and my heart was pounding, but none of that mattered. I take a slow deep breath before I stick my foot out over the edge and lean forward making the long drop to the water.

Before I hit the water, the last thought I had was that no one was going to miss me. _They were all going to be better off without me._

_(Kiba's P.O.V)_

I've never moved this fast in my life, but I really had no choice. I had to get there before I was too late.

I already had a good idea as to where Naruto had gone off to and the moment I caught his scent I knew I was heading in the right direction. I pushed forward as hard as I could.

Soon I could hear the sound of a rushing waterfall coming from up ahead and I knew I was close. _Please don't do it, please don't do it. _Was my internal mantra.

Finally I came across the waterfall. I looked around frantically for a sign, anything that he was here, but saw nothing. I sniffed the air and managed to catch the faint smell of his scent that was carried by the rush of the waterfall which meant he was here not too long ago.

I run to the edge so fast that my foot almost slips and I almost end up falling in. my eyes scanned the water for anything: the bright orange color of his jacket, his blond hair, or even his naturally tanned skin sticking up above the water just like I did last time.

I saw nothing.

I backed away from the edge and started pacing back and forth. I was pulling on my hair so hard, but couldn't feel anything. All I could feel were my legs go numb and I fall to the ground on my knees as the realization finally hit me. Naruto was gone and it's all my fault. All because I was too scared to admit the truth to my mother.

My eyes started to well up with tears until they were too much to bear and started rolling down my cheeks.

I fall to the ground. Laying there sobbing as the tears continued to rush out of my eyes. I stay there unmoving as the same thought bombards me over and over again. I just killed the one person that could really put a smile on my face, the one person that I could really open up to and now he was gone.

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><p><strong>AN:** I already know a lot of you are going to be mad at me for the ending, but I hope you've enjoyed the story all together. Just a heads up, not all my stories are going to have a happy ending wasn't really as sad as I wanted it to be XD. Now, I'm moving on to the second part of _Divine Secrets _so if you haven't read that yet I suggest you do. Thanks for favoriting and reviewing see you guys in _Divine Secrets 2 _(Or whatever I'm going to name it) :)


	12. Lamentations

**A/N:**Due to the huge request for another chapter here it is hope you enjoy :P Also it was hard to come up with a happy ending and this is the best I could do

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><p><em><span>Kiba's P.O.V<span>_

I woke up after having a not so pleasant dream. Ever since the incident I was barely able to sleep at all, but whenever I did manage to fall asleep I would have the same dream and every time I would wake up feeling like shit because of it. A dream where me and Naruto are laying down in a field together. He has his head on my chest and I have my arm wrapped around him bringing him in closer. We would just lay there enjoying each other's company, staring up at the sky watching as clouds came and went. Meanwhile, Akamaru would run around chasing, barking, and peeing on everything and anything he could find.

Then just as I settled into the dream I would get the feeling that someone was watching me. It didn't feel as if they were judging me. It felt quite the opposite like they were admiring me, taking in my features even.

I look down and see that Naruto was looking up at me with a huge grin on his face. No matter how much I tried to resist I couldn't help but smile back at him. There was just something about him that made me feel so happy, so good inside.

"What are you smiling at?" I would always ask even though I already knew the answer to that.

"Oh nothing, I was just thinking about how I managed to have the best boyfriend in the world." He would say.

"Is that so? May I ask what makes him the best?"

"Well besides him being the _only_ boyfriend I've had, it's just the usual things. You know; he's sweet, kind, adorable, and he's good with animals."

"Is that all?"

"Eh I guess so. Other than that he's not that hot, cute yes, hot not so much. He kind of has do breath too which kind of gets annoying especially in the morning when he tries to kiss me. Oh and his dick is kind of small too, I mean, I've seen bigger before. Just don't tell him I said that."

"Naruto, is there something that you want to tell me like you're seeing another guy or something because that doesn't sound anything like me?"

Naruto laughed. "Nope, you're the only one for me." He said.

"Oh yeah, prove it."

Naruto rolled over so that he was on top of me straddling my waist. He put his hands down on the ground on either side of my head and leaned down so that our faces were only mere inches apart.

Every time this part would feel so real. It was like me and Naruto were actually in a field with the wind blowing past us, the sun above us warming our skin.

I could even feel Naruto's hot breath on my skin from how close he was to me. That would always send my heart racing and make me feel something that I never thought I'd feel in my whole life. Nervous.

That was the power of the boy on top of me. He could make me feel the way no one else can.

Then he would lean down closing the gap between us and connect our lips in a kiss. In this moment I was reminded of everything I felt when he was still around. The joy he bought me by just being near him, the happiness he made me feel by just seeing him happy, and the way he's able to me feel, well, loved.

This was always the worst part of the dream. Being reminded of all the good things Naruto brought me was even worse than what was going to happen next.

Naruto broke the kiss and we starred at each other for a while. I caught myself getting lost in his ocean blue eyes. If it weren't for him speaking I think I would've staid lost in them forever.

"What was that?" I ask missing what he said.

"I said, tell me that you'll never leave me."

"You already know that I won't."

"Yeah, but I want to hear you say it."

"Alright fine, Naruto Uzumaki, my beloved boyfriend, I, the sexy Kiba Inuzuka, hereby announce that I will never leave you under any circumstances."

Naruto smiled. "That's what I wanted to hear."

I smile back. _It's like his happiness is contagious._

Naruto's smile dropped all of a sudden and was replaced with a look of pain.

"Naruto, you okay?" I ask, but he didn't respond, he never did.

He fell off of me and lay unmoving on the ground. In an instant I was by his side kneeling over him.

"Naruto, Naruto, what's wrong?!" By now I was panicking. I put my hand on the side of his head and turned it so I could look him directly in the face. I looked him in his ocean blue eyes that were normally filled with life and joy, and saw that now…now they were just blank. They even seemed as though they were losing their color and becoming grey. His skin had become cold to my touch and there was no sign of him breathing. That's when I knew that he was gone.

"Naruto, please. Please don't leave me." I begged. I knew he couldn't hear me. I knew that it was too late, that he wouldn't be responding. That's when the tears would start. At the realization that Naruto was gone my eyes would fill up with tears until they became too much to hold back and flowed down my cheeks.

I cradled Naruto's lifeless body in my arms, placing his head to my chest and cried as the one person that I can say I truly loved wasn't with me anymore.

That was always the end of the dream. After that I'd just wake up feeling like shit.

I sat up and looked on either side of me. I still wasn't used to waking up alone. I turned so that I was sitting on the edge of the bed with my feet on the floor. I put my face in the palms of my hands trying to get the thoughts of the dream out of my head. I felt something wet on my arm. I pull my head out of my hands and look to my right to see Akamaru whining next to me.

"It's okay boy, I'm fine, just another bad dream." I say. This was our new morning routine. I would wake up after having the dream, all shaken up. Akamaru would be worried about me and I would say that I was fine when in reality I'm not and just trying to pretend that the dream never happened. He always knew that I was lying but not once has he ever pestered me about it.

I let out a sigh and stand up. I walk to the bathroom, dragging my feet on the floor, and look at myself in the mirror above the sink. As usual my eyes were bloodshot, my hair a mess, and I just looked beyond worn out. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the image of Naruto's dead body in my arms out of my head and today wasn't going to make that any easier.

It's been a whole week since Naruto's death. The Kyuubi was set free moments after and started destroying the village. Tsunade and the Anbu were on the scene in an instant. Luckily the Kyuubi didn't get to cause too much damage as they were able to seal him away fast enough. This time they were sure to keep the identity of the Jinchuriki a secret to avoid another incident like this like this from happening. So the only ones that knew were Tsunade and the rest of the higher ups.

I guess that was a good idea. Now the Jinchuriki won't have to be ridiculed and tortured by the vilagers. Too bad they couldn't come up with that earlier.

On a normal day I would just stay in bed moping like I've done for the past week, but not today. Today was the day of Naruto's funeral. The only reason they waited this long for the funeral is because they went looking for his body, but to no surprise they couldn't find him. I bet most of them weren't even really looking for him in the first place.

I splash some cold water on my face. I had to get over him. I couldn't let this incident destroy my life, but can someone really get over the one they loved?

I finished cleaning myself up in the bathroom. I managed to somewhat tame my hair and the redness in my eyes had went away slightly. It was a funeral so appearance didn't matter anyway.

I walked back to my room and put on my funeral clothes which were just a black shirt, black pants, and black sandals.

"Come one Akamaru." I say and we walk out of my house, off the Inuzuka Estate, and onto the streets of Konoha.

I looked up to the sky and saw the sun shining without a cloud in sight and I couldn't help but wonder how it can be such a beautiful day on such a depressing event. While I was walking down the streets I wasn't surprised that none of the villagers were wearing the traditional all black for a funeral. That none of them were as down or affected by Naruto's death as I was. That's because they didn't give a shit about him. Most of them were probably happy that he was gone. That the person they blamed for all the destruction and death sixteen years ago was no longer with us.

I stuff my hands in my pockets and walk with my head pointed down to the ground not wanting to see the villager's joyful faces on a sad day like this. _They have no idea that we just lost one of the greatest shinobi of this generation._

I notice someone walk up beside me and I come out of my thoughts and look up from the ground to see Shino and Hinata walking next to me. Usually we'd be overly joyed to see each other, well me and Hinata that is, but now not a single smile was made as we solemnly walked to our friend's funeral.

Tsunade had called all of us into her office the day of Naruto's death. No one knew why we were called here. There were some theories being thrown around as we waited for Shikamaru arrive so Tsunade could finally tell us why we're here. There were beliefs that we were called here for a super important mission, or that it had something to do with the Nine- Tails' attack moments before.

Little did they know that was only part of the reason why we were here. I was the only one that knew full well why Tsunade called us here.

While they all chatted and came up with different ideas as to why we were here, I stood quietly in the corner of the room with my head down. No one seemed to notice that I wasn't my usual self and didn't try to talk to me because they all thought I was on a long mission this past month and had just got back exhausted.

Finally Shikamaru walked into the room. Tsunade stood up from her desk which caused everyone to become quite and turn their attention to her.

"Alright, now that you're all here I can tell you why I've called you all." Tsunade said.

"Wait, what about Naruto?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, is he alright? I saw the Nine-Tails from the other side of the village." Shikamaru said.

"Actually what I have to tell you is about him."

"Before you continue let me just say that Naruto isn't a threat to the village despite what people might think. He would never lose control over the Nine-Tails for no reason." Sakura said.

Tsunade sighed. I figured it was because she was trying to find an easy way to tell us.

"At first we did think he lost control but then….then we realized that he's dead." She says blankly. A moment of silence filled the room as everyone took this in. Even though I already knew this it still hurt to hear her say it.

"What? No, that can't be true." Hinata says."

"Please tell me that this is some cruel attempt at a joke." Ino says.

"Believe me, I wish it were. From what we know a group of rouge ninjas attacked him today and you can guess what happened next."

Hinata was the first to break down into tears and Ino was the one to console her.

"I can't believe he's really dead." Choji says more to himself than to anyone in the room.

"It's Naruto, there's no way he could die, there's just no way." Sakura said in denial right before tears started rolling down her cheeks.

While everyone was taking in the news, I couldn't stop thinking about why Tsunade said what she did. Why she lied about how Naruto died. He killed himself and the only reason why he did is because I couldn't keep my promise about never leaving him, about being truthful to my mom and telling her about my and Naruto's relationship.

I was being overwhelmed by the sudden sense of guilt and I found it hard for me to breathe for some reason. I had to get out of here. I stormed out of the room ignoring the questions of where I was going.

Now here I was making my way to my boyfriend's funeral. The big question was can I still be considered a boyfriend after what I did to him?

It seemed like the longest walk I've had in my life, but eventually we reached the funeral grounds. When we did I saw more people than I had expected. I saw Shikamaru and everyone else of course, but I also saw all of our senei's here as well. Kurani, Kakashi, Ebisu, all of them were here. Tsunade stood at the front, facing everyone and it looked as though she was leading the ceremony.

I spotted Sakura consoling a crying Konohamaru and his friends. I felt so bad for them having to lose a close friend at such a young age.

It seems like we were the last ones to arrive because once we did it began.

All throughout the ceremony people cried as old memories of a good friend that was no longer with us were brought up. Well into the funeral Hinata began to cry. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and let her cry on my chest. I always hated seeing her so sad. I think I even saw Tsunade start to tear up a bit.

But me, I haven't shed a single tear. The only time I did cry was the day of his death and I haven't cried since unless you count the dreams.

I was so confused by this. It was obvious that I was upset by Naruto's death so why couldn't I cry? Maybe I didn't care for him as much as I thought I did. That would explain why I did what I did.

Throughout the whole thing I was just wishing for it to be over. I felt like I didn't have the right to be here and then it happened. Lady Tsunade ended the ceremony and I was the first one to leave.

I walked from the funeral the same way I walked to it, solemnly with my head down to the ground and my hands stuffed into my pockets. Tsunade cancelled all missions for today, but tomorrow the missions would continue and that would be my first real mission in a month. I wondered how I would do tomorrow considering I didn't have any training at all except for the one time with Naruto.

I pushed the thought out of my head. I couldn't dwell on the past. What I needed to do was train so I didn't screw up tomorrow's mission.

"Hey, did you hear? The Nine-Tails brat is dead." I overhear someone say.

"Oh yeah, good riddance. He was nothing but trouble." Someone else says.

I felt my heart beat fasten as anger started to build up in me. I clenched my jaw and tightened my fists as I tried to control my temper.

"The only thing I'm sad about is that I wasn't the one who got to kill him."

"You never would've killed him anyway. You're too afraid of what the Hokage would do to you if you did."

"So what? If it weren't for her then I would. I don't know why she likes him anyway. She has to know about the Nine-Tails' attack sixteen years ago. He even attacked the village again last week. So many lives were lost because of that brat."

"Well at least we don't have to worry about him anymore. Oh and you know what else I heard? I heard the Uzumaki was a fag."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I heard it from Tsume Inuzuka herself."

"I wish I've known that sooner then I could've bashed on him more. I could just imagine the look on his face as I beat the shit out of him."

It all happened so fast that it even took me a while to realize what happened. When I did I saw that I had the guy pinned up against a wooden fence with one hand gripping the collar of his shirt and my other hand raised above my head clutched in a tight fist ready to beat the shit out of him.

His face held a mixed look of fear and shock. Akamaru barked from behind me telling me to stop, but I ignored him. Despite that he was probably a foot taller than me and definetly weighed more than I did, I lifted him up so that his feet dangled inches from the ground. I stared daggers at him with my teeth bared and watched as the look of fear grew on his face.

"H-hey man what's your problem?" His friend asks getting over his shock, but I don't pay any attention to him.

I felt hands wrap around me and tear me away from the guy I was moments away from beating up.

I struggled against the grip shouting for them to let me go. It wasn't until the person spoke that I finally stopped struggling against them.

"Kiba, you need to calm down." Tsunade said. I stopped struggling and once she felt me calm down she let me go. As soon as she did I took off as fast as I could on the rooftops.

I didn't know where I was going and I didn't care. I just wanted to get out of there. _They don't know anything about him. They have no idea how much of a kind person he was no matter how much shit he was put through. _

I soon find myself in the forest and I suddenly know where I want to go.

I followed the sound of the waterfall and hear it slowly come closer until I was standing right in front of it. I was back in the place where this all started. I walked to the edge and looked down at the rushing water below me.

I sighed having all the memories of me and Naruto that I've been trying to keep out come rushing back to me. I turn the white carnation that I picked up on the way here in my hand before dropping it over the edge. I watched as it fell then got carried away by the water.

I sit down with my legs dangling over the edge. _How could Naruto do something like that? Just take his life. I couldn't imagine what was going through his head before he did it._

"Why did you stop me? That guy deserved what was coming to him. If you heard the things he was saying about Naruto you would have done the same thing." I say.

Tsunade and Akamaru make their way to me and sit on either side of me.

"No, I wouldn't actually." She says.

"So you would just let them bad mouth him like that?" I ask turning to look at her. "They don't know anything about him and they think they can just say whatever they want about him."

"That's exactly it." Tsunade kept her eyes forward starring at the waterfall in front of us. "They don't know him the way you and I do. They don't know how kind hearted he is, how hard he works, or how much joy he brings to others who give him a chance. Every time I hear a villager talking bad about him I just laugh knowing all of that isn't true." She turns to face me. "I know you really cared about him and it makes you angry to hear the villagers say the things they do, but you can't go around picking fights with everyone who does. This is going to be hard for you to hear, but you have to let Naruto go."

I turned my attention back to the water below me. "I've tried to…I don't think I can do it."

"Yes you can just give it time. And you can start by realizing that his death was not your fault."

"How is it not my fault? He never would've done it if it weren't for me. If I just had the courage to stand up to my mom instead of denying our relationship and bad mouthing him this never would've happened."

"Naruto was suicidal to begin with. The chances of him committing suicide were already high."

"Yeah, but I was what pushed him to do it."

"No, Naruto was heartbroken and didn't know how to control his emotions. He wasn't thinking clearly and that's what caused him to do it." Tsunade put her hand on my shoulder. "I don't blame you for Naruto's death and neither should you blame yourself. " That was the last thing she said before she left.

/

It was well into the night and unlike a normal person I was sitting on the roof of my house staring up at the night sky. Whenever I didn't feel like having that recurring dream of Naruto dying I would come up here and try to wait out the night. It probably wasn't the best idea considering I had a mission tomorrow, but at this moment I didn't really care about anything.

I was trying to make sense of what Tsunade told me earlier. She said Naruto's death wasn't my fault. If that were true then why did I feel so guilty about it?

There were footsteps beside me then a voice as the person sat down next to me. "Kiba are you alright?" Sakura asks.

"Yeah I'm fine." I say blankly without turning to look at her.

"You don't have to lie. Everyone's noticed that you're taking Naruto's death really hard, but know that we are too. He was a great friend to all of us, we understand how you feel."

"No you don't" I say under my breath.

"What?"

"You guys have no idea how I feel." I turn to look at her and see that she has a confused expression on her face. "The whole story about rouge ninjas attacking him was a lie."

"How do you know that?"

"Because the real reason Naruto died is me! He was more than just a friend to me. I loved him and he loved me. We were together happily without a worry in the world, but then…." I felt my eyes start to fill up with tears and I tried to fight them back. ", then I ended up treating him like all the villagers do all because I was too afraid to admit to my mom how I truly felt about him. Then he ended up killing himself all because the one he trusted the most ended up treating him like everyone else in the village."

Finally I felt the tears start rolling down my cheeks. I didn't even try to resist the urge to cry I just let it all out. All the longing for Naruto to still be alive, all the sadness I felt, and best of all, all the guilt I felt for his death I felt be washed away. I let all of that out in that moment.

What I felt next came as a surprise. I felt Sakura wrap her arms around me and cradle me while I cried. I'm not sure how long we staid like this because the next thing I knew I was laying in a field with Naruto head on my chest. It was the dream all over again as usual. I was just waiting for the part where I would cry with Naruto's dead body in my arms, but it never came. I don't know why, but it seems like I found a way out of that horrible dream.

* * *

><p><span><strong>AN**There you go I hope that was a good enough ending for everyone :) Oh and the first chapter to Divine Secrets 2 is done...well mostly done and should be up soon :)


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